THE
RATON LIBRARY
OF
CHURCH HISTORY
AT
MANSFIELD COLLEGE,
OXFORD
E Charge
TWO ADDRESSES
to tbe Clero\>
OF THE
Bioceee of IDurham
IN
DECEMBER, 1882,
J. B. LIGHTFOOT, D.D., D.C.L., LL.D.,
BISHOP OF DURHAM
Xcm&on.
MACMILLAN AND CO.
INDEX.
PAGE
(lENHRAL 3
I, THE DIOCESE 4
(1) Territorial Rearrangements,
(i) Division of the Diocese -~>
(ii) New Archdeaconry - 15
(iii) Rearrangement of Rural Deaneries 19
(iv) Subdivision of Parishes - 21
(2) Dio<;ex«i), Institutions and Associations.
(i) Diocesan Conference - 23
(ii) Diocesan Societies 27
(iii) Organization of Lay Help - 28
(iv) Lay Readers 30
(v) Ministration of Women 33
(vi) Girls' Friendly Society and Young Men's Friendly
Society 35
(vii) Diocesan Preachers - 37
(3) Miscellaneous.
(i) Ordinations - 40
(ii) Meeting of Curates - 42
(iii; Confirmations - 43
(iv) Church Building and Restoration 45
(v) Diocesan Calendar and Magazine - 46
(4) Retrospective <md Prospect-ire. 47
II. THE CHURCH.
(1) Burial Laws Amendment Act - 55
(2) Permanent Diaconate - 61
(3) Salvation Army 67
(4) Revised New Testament - -77
(5) Vestments 82
(6) Church and State - , 86
(7) Anxieties and Hopes 89
XoTKs ... - 95
The first part of this Charge was delivered
in Durham Cathedral, before the Clergy of the
Archdeaconry of Durham, on Thursday, December
14th; the second in the Chapel of Auckland Castle,
before the Clergy of the Archdeaconry of Auckland,
on Saturday, December 1 6th.
With the Bishop of Durham's
compliments.
The, first part of this Charge was delivered
in Durham Cathedral, before the Clergy of the
Archdeaconry of Durham, on Thursday, December
14th; the second in the Chapel of Auckland Castle,
before the Clergy of the Archdeaconry of Auckland,
on Saturday, December 16th.
A CHARGE.
REVEREND BRETHREN,
THE SOLEMNITY of the occasion will be felt by all
who are met together to-day. This is far
more than an ordinary gathering of clergy, whether
for social interchange or for mutual consultation or
even for common worship. We have arrived at one
of those marked halting-places in our ministerial
journey, where, resting for a moment, we look behind
and before us ; and taught alike by the failures and
achievements of the past, we gird ourselves up for a
fresh start and a more energetic race in the future.
A visitation is a great audit time, when the Bishop
and Clergy alike render an account of their minis-
trations— the Clergy by their answers to the questions
of their diocesan — the Bishop by his charge summing
up the work of the diocese during the few years past.
It is a foreshadowing and a forecast of the great and
final visitation, when the Master Himself returning
shall demand an account of His talents, when the
Chief Shepherd shall reappear and require His flock
at our hands.
4 A Charge.
On this my primary visitation my thoughts
naturally revert to the day when, full of misgivings,
I first came among you between three and four
years ago. The more than kindly welcome which
I received from clergy and laity alike reassured me.
The hopes with which your attitude then inspired
me have not been disappointed. I have not escaped,
and I do not desire to escape, criticism. I have
striven to administer this diocese with moderation
indeed, but without fear or favour of men ; and he
who sets this ideal before him, must expect to dis-
appoint many and perhaps to offend a few. To the
generous forbearance, the ready deference, the frank
counsel, and the hearty co-operation of all — of the
clergy more especially — I am indebted for any measure
of success which may have attended my adminis-
tration since my coming among you. To this same
cause I owe it, that I address you to-day with a
courage and a hopefulness which three years and a
half ago I should not have thought possible.
I.
1. TERRITORIAL REARRANGEMENTS.
(i) Division of the Diocese.
A great and momentous change has overtaken the
diocese since the last visitation — a change more
considerable in itself and more important in its
prospective results than any since the establishment
of the see at Durham, if we except the abolition of
A Charge. 5
the Palatine jurisdiction in 1836. The See of
Durham has been shorn of two-thirds of its area
and one-third of its population. It has been severed
from the cradle of its race — the sacred island of
Lindisfarne. It has lost an appreciable part of its
income and its patronage. Nevertheless this change,
now that it is made, must be a subject of unalloyed
joy and thankfulness to all who have at heart the
well-being and efficiency of the Church of England.
When I was working for the division of the diocese,
I was met again and again with the objection —
frankly stated and, I doubt not, sincerely held — that
the dignity and prestige of the ancient See of Durham
would suffer irreparably by the change. My constant
reply has been that the dignity and prestige of the see
existed only for the sake of its efficiency, and that
the sacrifice must be made, if it were needed. But I
do not think that any real loss of dignity has been
incurred. I cannot imagine that the mother see will
suffer at all in influence or importance, because a
daughter, who is bone of her bone and flesh of her
flesh, has gone forth from her home to win the hearts
and stir the souls of men. She will be all the
stronger and all the prouder for such a motherhood
as this. Certainly I should be the least inclined of
all men, whether from my personal interests in the
see or from my historical sympathies with the past,
to consent calmly to any real diminution of the
glories of the ancient bishopric. But no local severance
can impair the historical connexion. Columba and
6 A Charge.
Aidan are still our spiritual forefathers ; Lindisfarne
and Hexham are still our ancestral homes, though
we have given them as a marriage portion to our
daughter. We cling as firmly, as eagerly, as reso-
lutely, as ever, to all that is noble, all that is true,
all that is enduring, all that is Christlike, in the
Northumbrian Church in the past.
I need not remind you that the creation of a see
for Northumberland, carved out of the Diocese of
Durham, is not a project of yesterday. It was
foreshadowed in the well-known Act of Henry vm,
which authorized the appointment of a suffragan
Bishop of Berwick to act as the Bishop of Durham's
lieutenant.1 It was carried out at least on paper by
an Act of the Legislature towards the close of the
next reign. This Act provided for the establishment
of a Bishopric of Newcastle, with the usual accom-
paniment of a Dean and Chapter. Happily it never
took effect. No blessing could have been expected
to rest on a measure prompted by the most selfish
motives and carried out by the most unscrupulous
means. The aggrandizement of the most rapacious
and worldly of courtiers — John Dudley, Duke of
Northumberland — was the primary incentive to the
change. The humiliation of the See of Durham was
a secondary but not unimportant object in the eyes
of its author. The deprivation and imprisonment of
the learned, gentle, moderate Tunstall — the most
blameless of prelates — was the immediate preliminary
to thejstep.2
A Charge. 7
Thus the Act, though decked out with specious
phrases and high-sounding professions of concern for
the welfare of the diocese, was a mere measure of
spoliation, prompted by the greed and ambition of
one man. It was altogether of the earth earthy ;
and it deserved to perish. Perish it did speedily.
Its rescission was one of the earliest measures of the
succeeding reign. From that time forward nothing
more is heard of the scheme till the present gene-
ration. However beneficial in itself, it had been
hopelessly discredited by its origin and its motive,
The Bishops of Durham, burdened with the cares of
a secular princedom in addition to their spiritual
functions, continued to perform the duties of their
office unaided. Even the permissive Act of Henry
vin, which granted a suffragan to the Bishop of
Durham, was only once called into requisition, though
in mediaeval times the Bishop of Durham had not
unfrequently employed some Bishop in partibus as
suffragan. One Dr. Sparke, Master of Greatham
Hospital in Queen Elizabeth's time, was the first and
last Bishop of Berwick on record.
But the See of Durham, however wide in area, was
not as yet very densely peopled. The whole popu-
lation of the diocese, comprising the two present
counties of Northumberland and Durham, with
a peninsula stretching into Cumberland and islets
dotted over the north of Yorkshire, was less at
the commencement of this century, than the
present population of any English diocese except
8 A Charge.
Hereford. But the century had hardly set in,
when the census rose by rapid bounds. The popu-
lation of the two counties is now four or five times as
great as it was in the opening years of the century.
This increase has been much more rapid in Durham
than in Northumberland. In 1801 Durham numbered
fewer inhabitants than Northumberland by twenty
thousand; in 1831 it had outstripped its neighbour
and counted some few thousands more; and in 1881
it reckoned double the population of Northumberland
though containing only half the acreage.3 No wonder
that with these rapidly growing numbers earnest
and thoughtful men began to desire for the diocese
more effective spiritual supervision. The Bishops of
Durham had been relieved from the cares of the
Palatinate not a moment too soon. But this relief
was more than counterbalanced by the ever increasing
pressure of work and the ever heightened ideal of
episcopal duty — an ideal springing from the general
revival of Church life, but owing not a little to the
devoted labours of men like Blomfield and Wilber-
force.
Accordingly in the year 1854 the Town Council of
Newcastle, by a unanimous vote, memorialized the
Home Secretary for the creation of a see in their
midst on the ground that owing to the increase of the
population ' the effective administration of the diocese
had become impossible ' ; and about the same time
the Cathedral Commissioners, who were then sitting,
received more than one memorial from the County of
A Charge. '•' 9
Northumberland to the same effect. In one of these
the memorialists put forward the plea that ' the diocese
contained an. estimated population of 770,000.' This
estimate had nearly doubled before the see was
actually created. The Commissioners themselves,
reporting in the following year (1855), mention the
fact that ' local efforts of considerable importance
have already been made at Newcastle for the creation
of a new see there/ and they themselves include it
in their schedule. At the first Church Congress also,
held at Cambridge in 1861, in which the increase
of the episcopate was one of the subjects discussed,
Durham was placed in the forefront of the dioceses
which needed division.4
For long years however local agitation slumbered.
Here and there a voice was raised, but no common
action was taken. Outside the diocese of Durham
however the movement did not rest. The creation of
the see of Eipon in 1836 could not be called an ex-
tension of the episcopate, for it was purchased by the
suppression of another bishopric. Yet the beneficent
effects of the division of an overgrown diocese and
the planting of a see in the heart of a populous
district were soon manifest in the fruits of Bishop
Longley's episcopate ; and this may be regarded
as the first step in the onward progress. The
lesson taught by the creation of Eipon in 1836
was further enforced by the creation of Manchester in
1847. This latter was the first real addition to the
English episcopate since Henry the vm's time,
10 A Charge.
though the population of England had increased five
or sixfold during the three centuries which had
elapsed meanwhile. So the cry for an increase of the
episcopate rose ever louder and louder from the
Church. A Society for the extension of the Home
Episcopate was founded. The Premier was memorial-
ized. Comprehensive measures of extension were
again and again brought before Parliament. At
length it was seen to be more politic to attack the
need in detail. Special wants must be supplied by
special measures. The result of this change of pro-
cedure was the immediate creation of two new sees.
St. Alban's was founded in 1875; Truro in the follow-
ing year. Each see created was a fresh indication of the
wisdom of these measures. Immediate and manifest
results followed in the quickening of Church life.5
At length Durham awoke again. In the year
1876 the late Bishop of Durham submitted to his
Euridecanal Chapters the advisability of creating
a new see for Northumberland. Though there
was much difference of opinion as to the mode of
endowment, ' the judgment was almost unanimous
as to the advisableness of creating the see/ In the
following year (August 1877) Mr. T. Hedley — the
inheritor of a name famous in the annals of inventive
science — bequeathed his personal estate after certain
deductions and on certain conditions for the endow-
ment of such a bishopric. This munificent bequest
clinched the measure. In the following year (1878)
an Act passed the legislature for the creation of four
A Charge. 11
new sees, Liverpool, Newcastle, Southwell, and
Wakefield. The Archbishop of Canterbury speaking
on the second reading of the Bill characterised the
measure as " one of the greatest reforms proposed for
the Church of England since the Reformation," and
looked forward to it as a " means of greatly strength-
ening the Church." My predecessor in this diocese
also strongly advocated the measure on that occasion.
This was, I believe, the last time that his voice was
heard in the House of Lords. In his last charge,
delivered a few months later, he commended the
foundation of the See of Newcastle to the diocese as a
measure much needed, giving his reasons for this
opinion, and referring to the decision of the Kuri-
decanal Chapters which I have already mentioned.
But he was not sanguine about the result. l The
prospect,' he said, ' of the accomplishment of this
good work is, I fear, remote,'6
The division of the diocese was thus bequeathed to
me as a legacy by my predecessor. As this topic
was prominent in his last public utterances to the
diocese, so also it had a conspicuous place in my first
words spoken among you. Preaching at my enthrone-
ment, I expressed the hope that ' the inauguration of a
new episcopate might be marked by the creation of a
new see ; that Northumberland which in centuries
long past gave to Durham her bishopric might receive
from Durham her due in return in these latest days ;
and that the New Castle on the Tyne might take its
place with the Old Castle on the Wear, as a spiritual
12 A Charge.
fortress strong in the warfare of God.' But before this
I had taken one important step. Immediately after
my appointment I had sought an interview with the
Duke of Northumberland and received from him the
promise of the munificent gift (£10,000) which was
the foundation stone of the undertaking. Thus the
measure which, promoted three centuries and a half
earlier by the greed and ambition of one Duke of
Northumberland had proved abortive, was destined
in our days to be realized by the unselfish munifi-
cence of another. I pledged myself then and there,
that the success of the measure was assured by his
generosity ; and the other day, when he presided
at the reception of the Bishop of Newcastle, thereby
crowning the work which he himself had begun, I was
able to remind him of the pledge thus given and
redeemed. But the cloud still hung heavily over
these northern counties when I came among you.
It was a period of almost unparalleled commercial
and agricultural depression. The special industries
of the diocese had suffered perhaps more than any
others. By the termination of the strikes and the
resumption of work the worst anxiety had indeed
been removed ; but confidence was not restored.
Not only had great losses been incurred in the past ;
but a sense of instability, than which nothing is more
fatal to charitable benefactions on a large scale, had
been engendered. For the time therefore I held my
hand, warned on all sides that it would be fatal to
move at a moment so inopportune. Thus fifteen
A Charge. 13
months elapsed since I entered my diocese, when the
first Diocesan Conference assembled towards the end
of September, 1880. Meanwhile a spur had been
applied to our tardiness. The See of Liverpool was
an accomplished fact. The people of Liverpool had
busied themselves with zeal, and the great wealth of
the place ensured them an early success. In my
opening address at the Conference I referred at length
to the foundation of the See of Newcastle as a
measure of immediate and pressing importance. The
division of the diocese was also one of the subjects on
the programme. Excellent papers were read on it,
and an interesting discussion ensued. I stated on
this occasion that the first consecration in which I
had been called to take part was the consecration of a
Bishop for Liverpool, and that it was my earnest
prayer that the second might be the consecration of a
Bishop for Newcastle. I added also the hope that this
stirring of the question at the Diocesan Conference
would ' prove the beginning of the end.'
The prayer was granted ; the hope was fulfilled.
That day did prove ' the beginning of the end.'
The first printed circular was issued, if I recollect
rightly, soon after the Conference. Within fifteen
months from that date we were able to announce
publicly that the requisite endowment had been
obtained and that the establishment of the new see
was therefore an assured fact. For the first few
months I kept the matter in my own hands, until
I was able to announce that two-thirds of the sum
14 A Charge.
required in addition to Mr. Hedley's legacy had been
secured. At length in December, 1880, a committee
was called together; and a more general and active
canvass was commenced. To the executive com-
mittee, and more especially to its treasurers and
secretaries, I desire here to record my sincere thanks
for their energetic labours. To the clergy generally,
and more especially to the Eural Deans and Arch-
deacons, the speedy success of the measure is largely
indebted. The Archdeacons above all (one alas ! is
no longer with us to receive this expression of my
thanks) have laid me under the deepest obligation.
Speaking at Newcastle, early in June 1881, I had
expressed the hope that I might be able to announce
the completion of the fund at the Congress which
was fixed for the ensuing October. This hope
was not gratified. The Congress met, and I had
still to ask ' Usquequo Domine' But a great
impulse was given to the work by this meeting.
A special Congress Fund was established at the
suggestion of the Bishop of Manchester and under
the direction of the then Archdeacon of Northum-
berland. We were now approaching the limit at
which it might be possible by careful investment and
by guarantees to establish the bishopric shortly,
wrhen the princely gift of Benwell Tower, as the
episcopal residence, dispensed with any anxiety about
guarantees, gave us a large margin, scattered all
misgivings, and rescued us from further delay. The
gift was made known privately by the donor in the
A Charge. 15
middle of October 1881, though not published till
later. Thus less than thirteen months from the time
when active steps were first taken had sufficed to
secure the foundation of the see. The signal munifi-
cence of Mr. Spencer was not the less welcome because
it came after the establishment of the see was assured.
From first to last the sum raised for the endowment,
including Mr. Hedley's benefaction, amounted to above
£70,000, besides the gift of the episcopal residence.
Unlike Liverpool, we received nothing from the
Additional Home Bishoprics Fund, which was already
more than exhausted by promises made elsewhere.
St. Alban's, Truro, Liverpool, Newcastle, have been
added to the list of English sees within a period of
five years. Southwell and Wakefield, we trust, will
not long be delayed. The endowments for these
new sees have been raised mainly by voluntary
contributions. This fact has had no parallel in the
history of the English Church for many centuries.
The number of additional bishoprics under Henry vm
was slightly greater, but they cost their founder
nothing. Yet this is only one out of many signal
fruits of the great awakening in the life of the Church
which we have been permitted to witness in our
generation. Have we not good cause to thank God
and take courage ?7
(ii) The New Archdeaconry.
Only second in importance to the creation of a
new see in the territorial re-arrangements of
16
the diocese has been the creation of a new arch-
deaconry. Even, if the division of the diocese had
not been imminent, the division of the Archdeaconry
of Durham would have been a pressing need. The
County of Durham, with its exceptional adminis-
trative difficulties, with its ever increasing and ever
shifting population, and with the incessant parochial
developments and readjustments rendered necessary
thereby, had outgrown the powers of one Archdeacon
however energetic. But the time was fast approaching
when the county would become co-extensive with the
diocese, and it was a striking anomaly that a Bishop
of one of the chief English sees, still retaining an
exceptionally large population, should be dependent on
the co-operation of a single Archdeacon. It is true
that the Archdeaconry was in some degree relieved by
the Officialty. But the relief was more nominal than
real ; and, as a matter of fact, the Officialty had of
recent years been held with one or other arch-
deaconry, latterly with the Archdeaconry of Durham.
As the parishes included in the Officialty are scattered
up and down the Archdeaconry of Durham, this
arrangement was perhaps as convenient as the circum-
stances permitted. Moreover the Officialty was itself
an anomaly. It originated in a privilege granted in
Norman times to the Prior of Durham by the Bishops
to exercise independent jurisdiction over the cures
supplied by the monastic house. To these parishes
the Prior was regarded as Archdeacon ; and after the
Eeformation this jurisdiction devolved on the Dean
A Charge. 17
as his representative. Though it might have been
exercised by him in person, he generally delegated
it to an Official, elected by the Dean and Chapter.
The anomaly was thus twofold. In the first place
the archidiaconal jurisdiction of the Official was not
marked by continuous geographical boundaries, like
an ordinary archdeaconry. His territory was spo-
radic. It was an archidiaconate within an archi-
diaconate. But secondly (and this was the greatest
anomaly) it was quite independent of the Bishop.
The Official was not only not appointed by the Bishop
but was independent of the Bishop. He was not the
Bishop's eye, but the Dean's eye. Thus the parishes
of the Officialty, so far as regards the episcopal
supervision exercised through the Archdeacon, were
peculiars. The anomaly was probably unimportant,
when it was first created ; but as the patronage of the
Dean and Chapter increased, it became more flagrant.
At the time of its abolition it included not less than
48 parishes, and this number would have grown from
time to time by the formation of new parishes. When
I applied to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for the
creation of the new Archdeaconry of Auckland, they
at once laid their finger on this blot. At first I
pleaded for the retention of the Officialty. Though
the exemption (in one important respect) of a large
number of parishes from episcopal jurisdiction was an
irregularity indefensible in itself, yet it had been so
worked as to be unproductive of any real evil beyond
the inconvenience ; and I could not but respect the
B
18 A Charge.
sentiments and attachments which had gathered about
an institution dating eight centuries back and con-
nected with the name of William of Carileph. But
the Commissioners conceived their duty to be clear.
A main purpose of their existence was the abolition of
peculiars. By Act of Parliament they were charged
to see that every parish in its entirety was comprised
in one rural deanery, and every rural deanery in its
entirety in one archdeaconry. Thus the letter not less
than the spirit of the statute seemed to them to demand
the abolition of the Officialty, as a preliminary to the
creation of the Archdeaconry. Moreover they had a
strong precedent for this mode of dealing with the
matter. When the Archdeaconry of Lindisfarne was
carved out of the Archdeaconry of Northumberland
in 1842, the jurisdiction of the Officialty in the
County of Northumberland was abolished, and the
parishes comprised in it were assigned to the res-
pective archdeaconries in which they were situated.
This was an exactly analogous case, and the Officialty
was doomed. With the consent of the Dean and Chap-
ter therefore, and with the generous acquiescence of
the then Official, Archdeacon Prest, who expressed his
willingness to resign at any moment, the measure was
passed. By an Order in Council dated May 3, 1882,
the Officialty was abolished. By a second Order,
signed at the next Council, May 17, the Arch-
deaconry of Auckland was created. More important
administrative functions have always been assigned to
the Archdeacons in this diocese than in most others —
A Charge. 19
with very real advantage to the Church. From their
wise, energetic, and loyal co-operation I have received
the greatest assistance ; and I anticipate a substantial
gain to the diocese from the division of the Arch-
deaconry of Durham. The Officialty will doubtless
cease to be represented in Convocation ; but practically
the representation of the diocese as a whole will be
increased. Two Proctors of the new Archdeaconry will
be substituted for the two Proctors of the Officialty
at the next Convocation ; while the two Archdeacons
will replace the one member in whose person the
Archdeaconry of Durham and the Officialty were
united.8
(iii) Re-arrangement of Rural Deaneries.
After the creation of the new Archdeaconry the
re-arrangement of the Eural Deaneries stands next in
order. As a matter of history however the reform
of the Eural Deaneries preceded the reform of the
Archdeaconries. The Deaneries, as I found them,
still remained as they had been arranged by Bishop
Longley a quarter of a century ago, when he revived
the office of Eural Dean. On what principle he
went — whether he worked upon any ancient eccle-
siastical lines or whether he followed certain civil
divisions — I do not know. But with the lapse of
time his arrangement had become inadequate and
inconvenient — inadequate, for seven Eural Deaneries
were quite insufficient for a county whose population
was fast mounting to 900,000 — inconvenient, for
20 A Charge.
parishes territorially and civilly associated together
were for ecclesiastical purposes severed by the existing
boundaries. The City of Durham for instance was
partly in West Chester, partly in South Easington ;
and so in like manner the borough of Sunderland was
bisected, Monkwearmouth falling to East Chester and
Bishopwearmouth to North Easington — the river
Wear having been taken in both these cases as the
frontier line. This inconvenience alone would have
prompted some change in the arrangement, even if
there had not been an immediate motive for action.
But I had decided on summoning a Diocesan Con-
ference ; and, as the representation in the Conference
was intended to be based on the ruridecanal divisions
of the diocese, the readjustment of the latter was a
necessary preliminary. Accordingly I obtained the
sanction of the Commissioners to a scheme which was
gazetted on July 9, 1880, and by which the County,
then co-extensive with the Archdeaconry of Durham,
was divided into eleven Eural Deaneries in place of
the previous seven. The Eural Deaneries are still
very large — at least in population, if not in acreage-
compared with the corresponding arrangements in
some other dioceses. Thus I find that in S. Alban's,
which has about the same population as the reduced
Diocese of Durham, there are 46 Deaneries ; and that
in Norwich, where the population is, roughly speaking,
two-thirds of our own, the Deaneries are 41 in number.
But the proportions vary widely in different dioceses ;
and I do not think too great subdivision in that
A Charge. 21
respect advisable. The value of the Ruridecanal
Chapters and Conferences consists not a little in the
power of association and the sense of Church member-
ship which they foster ; and this advantage would be
seriously impaired if a Deanery comprised only very
near neighbours who were constantly meeting together
for other purposes. One or two of the Deaneries are
perhaps still inconveniently large, but these may
easily be divided, if necessary, at a later date.9
(iv) Subdivision of Parishes.
I have spoken of territorial readjustments — diocesan,
archidiaconal, ruridecanal. One other branch of this
subject still remains — the parochial. The subdivision
of the large and populous parishes is a matter of
the highest moment for the spiritual welfare of the
diocese. My predecessor in his last charge, delivered
four years ago, expressed his opinion that ' the limit
to the formation of new districts had almost been
reached.' Commenting on these words at our
Diocesan Conference in 1880, I said that I did not
discern at the time any signs of flagging in this work
of parochial subdivision. Looking back from a higher
vantage ground now, and ranging over a wider space
of time, I see that there has been a sensible abate-
ment. During the four years since the last visitation
only 9 new ecclesiastical districts have been formed,
though 11 other districts already formed have been
created into parishes on the consecration of their
churches. A comparison with the statistics of
22 A Charge.
former years shows that the abatement began in
1876. It is due partly to the fact that the
impulse given by the census of 1871 had spent
itself, partly to the circumstance that the years
of depression which ensued tended to paralyse a
movement which before all things required a con-
siderable expenditure of money, but still more perhaps
to the cause foreseen by Bishop Baring, that such a
movement must from its very nature exhaust itself in
time. This time however has not yet arrived. The
census of 1881, which exhibits an increase of 182,000
in the population of the County of Durham alone,
has revealed great and startling deficiencies in our
spiritual agencies. Before the statistics of this census
were known, I sent a circular to the Rural Deans,
requesting them to furnish me with information as to
the readjustment of parochial boundaries and the
creation of new parishes which they considered urgent
or desirable in their respective Deaneries. As the
result of this enquiry, combined with the statistics
of the census since made known, I find that at least
fifteen new parishes ought to be created in the present
Diocese of Durham alone, if the parochial system is to
be maintained on a reasonably efficient scale. I will
take two typical instances. The parish of S. Paul's,
Hendon, in the borough of Sunderland, was formed in
1854. It has already been once subdivided — the parish
of S. Barnabas having been formed in 1876. But not-
withstanding this relief its population now amounts to
18,000 or 19,000; and, though a town population is
A Charge. 23
necessarily more or less compact, the very numbers
plead for immediate subdivision. The rural district
of Crook presents a different type of parish, but the
need of relief here is equally pressing. It was created
in 1845, and has since been reduced by the formation
of the daughter parish of Stanley which now contains
a population of more than 3,800. Nevertheless the
population of the parish thus reduced has mounted up
to 10,000 or 11,000, and these are not gathered into
one centre but scattered through several hamlets
lying at great distances from Crook itself. The
creation of these new parishes deserves immediate
attention. In many cases the initial steps have been
already taken, and in some the arrangements are
approaching completion. But it depends largely on
the generosity of the laity whether all these crying
wants of the diocese can be promptly supplied.10
2. DIOCESAN INSTITUTIONS AND ASSOCIATIONS.
(i) Diocesan Conference.
The first Diocesan Conference was held in Septem-
ber, 1880. We met with some misgiving, for this
was a fresh experiment in the Diocese of Durham ; we
parted with feelings of deep thankfulness for the result.
All present must have been impressed by the character
of the papers and the tone of the discussions. It is a
great advantage for the clergy and laity of the diocese
to have periodically these opportunities of inter-
changing thoughts on the great work which lies
before them, even if no immediate practical measures
24 A Charge.
are carried out through the agency of these conferences.
In the present instance the direct result was the
appointment of some important committees, which
have already borne fruit.
The future conduct of the Diocesan Conferences is
still under consideration. The composition of the
body is open to revision, if revision is necessary. The
reduction of the. diocese has made a larger representa-
tion possible, should it be thought desirable. Nor
again has it yet been decided how often the meetings
shall be held. The first Conference could only be
regarded as preliminary and tentative. The Newcastle
Congress in 1881, the Visitation in 1882, have inter-
posed and suspended our meetings hitherto. Now
that all obstacles are removed, it is time that rules
should be laid down fixing the intervals and the times
of meeting. Then again we ought to see our way
with regard to our modes of procedure. I believe that
we did wisely at our first Conference in confining
ourselves to discussion without voting on the questions
brought before us. But we shall have, soon or late, to
consider whether it is advisable or not to continue this
self-imposed restraint. These three seem to me to be
the main points to which the committee appointed at
our first Diocesan Conference will have to direct their
attention, and their recommendations will be awaited
with deep interest.11
Before I pass away from this subject of our Diocesan
Conference, I must advert to one subject of great
importance and of no little perplexity. You are
A Charge. 25
doubtless aware that a Central Council of Diocesan
Conferences has been formed, composed of six dele-
gates— three lay and three clerical — from each diocese
which is willing to send representatives. The main
object of this Association, as stated in its own words,
is to obtain the general opinion of the Church at large
on matters affecting its welfare, with a view to their
being brought prominently, if thought desirable,
before the Convocations and Parliament. It is stated
that as many as twenty-three Diocesan Conferences
have approved this Association, and appointed dele-
gates to it. When I was asked in like manner to
name members to represent our Conference I did
not see my way to complying with the invitation.
As the question had not been brought before my
Diocesan Conference, I could not assume that it would
take a favourable view of the measure. As a matter
of fact more than one Diocesan Conference has since
declined to recognize this Central Association. More-
over persons appointed by myself alone could not in
any true sense be called representatives of the Con-
ference. I should have had no choice therefore but
to defer action, even if I had seen my own way
clearly. But the whole matter seems to me to de-
serve more careful consideration. It is impossible not
to respect the main objects of the promoters. The
representation of lay opinion in the Church is a
problem which cries for solution, and this Central
Council is a rough attempt to solve it. But its con-
stitution seems to me to be open to some question.
26 A Charge.
It is not a purely lay body, and indeed there are good
reasons why clergy and laity should be combined for
purposes of deliberation. But where the clerical
element is given an equal representation with the lay,
it must at least seem strange that the episcopate should
be the only section of the Clergy which is wholly un-
represented. It is not enough to say that the Bishops
have opportunities of meeting and consulting together
elsewhere. The distinctive character of this As-
sociation is the opportunity of conferring with a
representative lay body ; and this opportunity the
Bishops have not.
But, besides this difficulty of its constitution, there
are others attending its action. The influence of such
a body will necessarily be very great, and will increase
in proportion as it becomes truly representative of
opinion — more especially lay opinion — in the Church.
But what will then be its relation to the two Convo-
cations ? What, if it should be found at cross
purposes with them ? I say nothing of any possible
conflict with the Bishops, who are the chief adminis-
trators of the Church, though here the danger is
perhaps equally great, because the voice of the
Bishops would perforce be silent in the deliberations
of the Council.
I do not wish to urge these considerations as final.
But they do seem to me to be momentous. At all
events I felt that entertaining these difficulties I could
not commit the Diocese to a direct approval of the
measure without first consulting my Conference. It
A Charge. 27
may appear advisable to risk some perils for the sake of
a confessedly good object ; but further deliberation
seemed advisable.12
(ii) Diocesan Societies.
The Diocesan Societies need not detain me long.
They continue to do excellent work, of which the
extent is only limited by their means. The division of
the diocese involves a reconsideration of their position,
and will probably lead in most cases to a corresponding
separation. The Society of the Sons of the Clergy
calls for one special remark. No institution seems to
have more direct and urgent claims on the liberality
of laymen than this. Yet I find that the clergy are
by far the most numerous subscribers — frequently too,
clergy with very slender incomes. In one Deanery
there is only one layman out of thirteen ; in another
twenty out of twenty-four subscribers are either
clergymen or members of their families. The society
receives very noble contributions from some few
laymen, but the number of lay subscribers cannot
amount to many more than one-third of the list.
This same remark applies with at least equal force to
another excellent institution — our Diocesan Church
Building Society. Here again I am startled to find
how large a proportion of the contributors are clergy-
men. I cannot believe that, if the matter wrere put
definitely before them, the laity would allow this slur
on their generosity in two important particulars to
remain.
28
A Charge.
The Diocesan Board of Inspection continues to
do excellent work. The progress made since the
last visitation may be seen from a comparison of
the statistics in the latest reports available on the
two occasions :
Schools
Inspected.
Children
Examined.
Pupil Teachers
Examined.
1877
469
45,831
587
1881
494
56,788
658
In the present year it is estimated that 520 schools
will have been examined. The quality of the work
done has also improved from time to time, as will
appear from the following table :
Excellent.
Good.
Fair.
Moderate
Indifferent.
Bad.
1877
17
254
157
32
2
7
1881
35
284
156
17
2
0
The new experiment by which lectures prepared by
the Inspectors have been delivered to Pupil Teachers
at specified centres has, I trust, been found useful.
My thanks are especially due to those clergy who
at the cost of much time and trouble have assisted
in carrying this scheme out.13
(iii) Organization of Lay Help.
Not the least important work of the Diocesan
Conference was the appointment of a Committee to
consider the Organization of Lay Help. In two
A Charge. 29
successive reports this committee placed its recom-
mendations before me (Diocesan Magazine, February
1881, p. 18; March 1881, p. 34). These recom-
mendations received my entire approval (Diocesan
Magazine, April 1881, p. 50). They have been
acted upon in some parishes, and I am able to say
thankfully that they have given a great impulse to the
sense of religious responsibility among the laity, and
have been attended by a perceptible quickening of
Church life. It is my earnest hope that the institution
will spread, till every parish in the diocese has its
organization. No diocese affords a better scope for
this movement ; none has more need of such aid to
supplement its clerical ministrations.
The organization for individual parishes has yet to
be followed up by a central organization for the whole
diocese. This step however cannot well be taken
until the local movements are farther advanced, and
I therefore venture earnestly to press the subject on
the attention of the clergy. By means of this central
body, in which the parish organizations will be duly
represented, I hope that the earnest laity of the
diocese may be welded together into one whole, may
feel the strength and the inspiration of numbers, may
realize more fully the catholicity of their Church, and
may thus throw themselves with renewed vigour and
heightened courage into their work. I find that some
misapprehension has been entertained with respect to
this central organization. It is not intended in any
way to supersede the Diocesan Conference ; and care
30 A Cliarge.
will be taken that the functions of the two shall not
clash. Its motive indeed will be quite different. It
will interest itself solely with questions that concern
workers as workers. It will promote the interchange
of ideas between the representatives of different
parishes on these questions. Thus it will give
coherence to the work. I look forward also to
general meetings from time to time when all the
lay-helpers in the diocese will be invited to some great
centre, such as Durham Cathedral, for devotional
purposes. An anniversary religious festival, such as I
contemplate, would be a great spur to the energies of
individual workers and would teach all alike the lesson
which we need to realize more fully — the unity of the
body of which we severally are members.
(iv) Lay Readers.
At the head of this organization of lay help stands
the office of the Lay Eeader. The inability of the clergy
to supply all the ministrations which are needed, is an
acknowledged fact. The neglect of past generations
has left us vast spiritual arrears to be overtaken. The
population is increasing far more rapidly than the
proportion of clergy. The difficulty, which is felt
throughout the length and breadth of the English
Church, is nowhere greater than in this diocese.
There are very few parishes in Durham — they might
be almost counted on the fingers — where the clergy
however energetic are able to do all that ought to be
done. If the Church has not succeeded in evangelizing
A Charge. 31
the masses, neither have the Nonconformists. What
then shall we do ? Shall we hang our hands in despair ?
Shall we be satisfied with going on as hitherto, picking
up one here and one there, gathering together a more
or less select congregation, forgetful meanwhile of the
Master's command, " Go out into the highways and
hedges, and compel them to come in." The Salvation
Army has taught us a higher lesson than this. What-
ever may be its faults, it has at least recalled us to this
lost ideal of the work of the Church — the universal
compulsion of the souls of men.
How shall we strive to realize this ideal ? No
accession to the ranks of the clergy, which can be
contemplated as within the range of probability, would
supply the need. But in the laity we have a re-
cruiting ground of evangelists which, potentially at
least, is inexhaustible. Shall we not avail ourselves of
these resources ? To enlist, to organize, to drill and
marshall these volunteers of Christ's army, is the great
work which lies before the Church of England in our
generation. It is not difficult to see the great inci-
dental gain in a movement in this direction on a large
scale. The mere spectacle of a large body of laymen
banded together for an evangelistic work, and giving
their services gratuitously, raised above any suspicion
of official prejudices -or of personal interests — preaching
Christ for Christ's sake — would have an incalculable
moral effect. We have not yet thrown our energies,
as a Church, into this organization. Even in the few
dioceses where it has been seriously taken up, it has
32 A Chanjc.
not attracted attention at all in proportion to its
importance. In this diocese the movement is still
in its infancy. In January last I published my
intention of issuing commissions to men recom-
mended by the incumbents under whom they were
prepared to work. The form of commission author-
izes these. Lay Readers * to teach in the schools,
to visit the sick, to read and explain the Scriptures,
to exhort and pray in private households, to hold
such services in unconsecrated buildings as the
bishop shall approve, and generally to render aid
to the incumbent in all ministrations which do not
require the services of a minister in Holy Orders' ;
provided that nothing be 'done in the parish except at
the request and with the consent of the said incumbent.'
It is not expected that any individual Lay Reader
shall perform all the functions here specified. Tin's
will depend on his gifts and his opportunities. But I
was especially anxious to show a generous confidence
in these lay ministrations. In some dioceses the
preaching of the Lay Readers is confined to reading
sermons approved by the Bishop or the incumbent.
What may be the wisest course elsewhere I do not
venture to say ; but I felt — and I am sure the Clergy
will feel with me — that in this diocese such a re-
striction would have been fatal to the efficiency of the
scheme. The "liberty of prophesying " is nowhere
more freely asserted or more highly valued than in
these northern counties: and this new office would
have been hopelessly crippled, if I had denied it this
A Chfirc/c. 33
function which is so freely exercised on nil sides. My
manifesto appeared eleven months a<j;o. Commissions
have ])cen issued by me to 30 persons, of whom 9
belong to Northumberland ,-ind '2 1 still remain in
the Diocese of Durham. Thus the progress of the
measure lias been somewhat slow. But this is not a
subject of disappointment. Too o'reat speed al first
would not have augured well lor its ultimate success;
and already I see si^ns of accelerated progress. I look
to the ( 1leroy for their frank acceptance of t he principle
involved in this measure, and I believe that I shall
not look in vain. The more we trust the laity, tin-
more they will trust us.14
(v) Ministration of Women.
Another subject on which I feel strongly mid
which I commend to your earnest attention is the
ministration of women. It has always been a matter
of deep regret to me that in the received English
Version of the Bible (which provisionally I will call
Authorised) the female diaconate has been obliterated.
As I read my New Testament, the female diaconate
is as definite an institution in the Apostolic Church
as the male diaconate. Phoebe is as much a deacon
as Stephen or Philip is a deacon. Yet in the former
of the two passages to which I have alluded (l
Tim. iii. 13), the deaconesses are transformed into
deacons' wives in defiance alike of the natural inter-
pretation of the words and of the suii^estions of the
context ; while in the latter (Rom. xvi. 1) the colour-
c
34 A Charge.
less word " servant " is substituted for the more
precise term " deacon " or " minister." Until this
female ministry is restored, the Church of England
in this diocese will remain one-handed.
Feeling this strongly, I laid the subject before
the meeting of Archdeacons and Rural Deans in
September, 1880. The result was the appointment
of a committee on " Woman's Work," which reported
early in the following year. This report recommended
the introduction of the office of " deaconess " in the
Diocese in accordance with rules approved by the
two Archbishops and most of the Bishops some years
ago ; and it still further expressed the opinion that
" an Institution for the Training of Deaconesses in
the Diocese of Durham is in every way desirable "
(Diocesan Magazine, March 1881, p. 35).
Our hands have been so full of late, that the
working out of this scheme has been delayed hitherto ;
but I trust that it will occupy the serious attention of
the Diocese forthwith, and that at the next visitation
satisfactory progress will be reported. In no direction
can the resources of the Church be developed with
the hope of more immediate and abundant fruit. We
may find some difficulty in defining the precise line
where S. Paul's prohibition (1 Cor. xiv. 34), as
interpreted in the light of other passages (l Cor.
xi. 5), fixes the limits of the woman's function as a
religious teacher ; but in the philanthropic and
charitable work of the Church, which is her proper
sphere, her capabilities are inexhaustible. To utilize
A Charge. . 35
this great resource, hitherto undeveloped, to include
within the organization and to endow with the
blessing of the Church the latent potentialities of
self-denying sympathy and love with which woman is
so richly endowed — this will be a truly noble aim
to set before our eyes. No witness of men will plead
so eloquently for Christ as this silence of woman's
inobtrusive but boundless charity.15
(vi) Girls Friendly Society and Young Men's
Friendly Society.
Two organizations especially demand our attention,
as making provision for the care of the young of
either sex. The Girls Friendly Society was incorpo-
rated into our Diocesan Institutions in July, 1881.
But, though so recently endowed with a diocesan
organization, it has already taken firm root and is
throwing out numerous and vigorous branches on all
sides. In one or two Eural Deaneries more especially
it has been worked with great activity and with very
gratifying results. I feel sure that its worth needs
only to be known in order to be appreciated ; and I
hope that before the next visitation branches will be
established throughout the diocese. The work of this
society is evangelical in the highest sense. But as it
undertakes not only to befriend and guide young
girls in their present locality, but also to accompany
them in all their subsequent migrations with its
sympathy and counsels, its efficiency must depend in
no small degree on its universality. I trust therefore
36 A Charge.
before long to see such a net-work of its associations
spread over the whole of this diocese that, whither-
soever a girl may be removed, she may be sure of
finding in her new home the same sisterly sympathy
and guidance, on which she had learnt to depend in
her former abode. This ought not to be difficult.
There is, I am sure, in every neighbourhood no lack
of warm-hearted Christian women who will esteem it
a privilege to hold out a helping hand to their humble
sisters, and will find in this interchange of sympathy
their own truest and best reward. It has been repre-
sented to me that in some neighbourhoods the Girls
Friendly Society cannot be worked at once honestly
and efficiently. To meet such cases, which seem to
be exceptional, the Young Women's Help Society has
been established. In large and populous parishes
there may be room for both ; but elsewhere probably
confusion and perplexity would arise from the attempt
to work both, and the choice will have to be made.
What the Girls Friendly Society aims at doing for
the one sex, the Young Mens Friendly Society un-
dertakes to do for the other. This association was
founded later than the other, and has not yet made
such progress ; but it is hardly less needed. You
probably have in your own parishes some organization
or other for bringing youths together, for binding
them to the Church and to one another, and for guid-
ing them at the most critical season of their life-
cither Church Institutes or Mutual Improvement
Associations or Parish Guilds or the like, But a
A Charge. 37
Central Association like the Young Metis Friendly
Society is needed as a bond of union between these
local associations, so that, as in the case of the girls,
a youth passing from one neighbourhood to another
may feel that a friendly eye follows him. The affilia-
tion therefore of your parochial associations, whatever
name they may bear, with this parent society, is
an object which I recommend to your attention. I
trust that before long we may have some more
complete diocesan organization for this society than
we have at present.
I have mentioned it as a chief aim of both these
societies that they strive to keep an eye on young
persons, so that once taken up they may never be
lost sight of. May I venture for a moment to dwell
on the importance of thus realizing the catholicity of
our Church in our dealings with young and old
alike ? Early in the year I issued a form of Com-
mendatory Letter, which I hoped would be used by
the Clergy in cases of migration from their parishes,
whether to some other part of England or to the
Colonies. I am glad to find from the visitation re-
turns that there are very few of the Clergy who do
not either use this form or adopt other measures
having the same end in view.16
(vii) Diocesan Preachers.
It has become somewhat the fashion in these days
to speak disparagingly of the parochial system, as if
38 A Char ye.
it were a failure. I have no sympathy with this
language. The parochial system is the great safe-
guard of any Church, without which it would be in
peril of degenerating into mere Congregationalism.
In rural districts it is probably as efficient as it ever
has been. In the more populous places on the other
hand, and especially in the densely crowded towns, it
is often sorely taxed ; but just here, where the strain
is greatest, the need for its maintenance is also the
most urgent. The lowest parts of our great towns
have little else but the parochial system to look to ;
and if their spiritual needs are not supplied thence,
they are in imminent peril of being altogether
neglected. The Nonconformist chapel is dependent
on the Nonconformist congregation. As the district
sinks lower in the social scale, the members of the
Nonconformist congregation migrate to a better
neighbourhood, and the chapel is compelled to follow
their migration. If the Church of England is
wakeful and active in that neighbourhood, it will see
a necessity laid upon it by the opportunity, and will
step in and fill the vacancy thus created. In the
borough of Sunderland alone, since I came into the
diocese, not less than four Nonconformist chapels, thus
abandoned, have been purchased by the Church of
England, and utilized for her services in the poorer
parts of the town.
But a due appreciation of the parochial system is
one thing ; a blind idolatry of it is another. Plainly
it has not succeeded, and there is no ground for hope
A C/taiyc. 39
that it will succeed, if unaided, in evangelizing the
masses. The demand therefore is imperative that we
should consider how we can best supplement its
agency with a view to greater efficiency. And here
our eyes turn instinctively in one direction. The
prominent place which mission preaching has assumed
in the Church of England within a very few years is
not the least remarkable fruit of the great spiritual
revival. It becomes us therefore to enquire whether
by some definite diocesan organization we cannot help
this movement forward. The main lines of such an
organization will probably have presented themselves,
as obvious, to most of you. At the head will be a
member of the Cathedral Chapter, a Canon Missioner
in effect, if not in name. If the idea which has
suggested itself to many should ever take effect, and
a Minor Canonry in the Cathedral should be assigned
to the endowment of a mission preachership, we should
thus have provision for a lieutenant acting with and
under the Canon Missioner. With this nucleus ready
to hand, the creation of an adequate staff of Diocesan
Preachers ought not to be a far distant event. The
organization of this staff, the consideration of ways
and means, the regulation of the special missions, and
above all the provision for the spiritual sustenance of
the missionaries, would be the work of the Canon, who
himself also would undertake part of the preaching.
The staff might comprise, if it were thought fit, laity
as well as clergy, unpaid as well as paid agents, the
temporary aid of those engaged in parochial work as
40 A Charye,
well as the continuous services of those specially and
solely devoted to this mission work. Care would be
taken not to repeat the mistake of the preaching
friars in the thirteenth and following centuries. No
body of men would be set up as rivals to the parochial
clergy. No parish would be invaded except at the
invitation or with the consent of the incumbent.
In this way the institution would be worked as a
spiritual refreshment both to clergy and to people.
The successful parochial organizer and visitor is not
always the best preacher. Even when the parish
clergyman has this gift, a new voice will often strike
a chord in hearts where the tones long familiar have
failed to awaken any response. Meanwhile to an
incumbent, working on from year's end to year's end
within the limits of his own district, it will be a relief
for the moment to become a hearer. He will resume
his work with new ideas, new aspirations, new im-
pulses, new encouragements, through the stimulus
thus given to the spiritual life of the parish.
3. MISCELLANEOUS.
(i) Ordinations.
The statistics of the Ordinations will necessarily be
a subject of great interest to all here. It is well known
that — for reasons which I have explained elsewhere —
I restored the summer Ordination, which in this
diocese was customarily held at the end of June or the
beginning of July, to the proper Ember season. But
while doing this, I added another Ordination at
A Charge. 41
September for deacons only — partly for the general
convenience of the diocese, and partly also to meet
the cases of those Durham students who would not
have passed their University Examination before
Trinity Sunday. This change however was not
made during 1879, so that it has only been in opera-
tion for three out of the four years.
In his last charge (1878) Bishop Baring congratu-
lated the diocese on the gradual increase in the number
of deacons ordained for the diocese. In the previous
four years (1871-1874) the number had been 90, "a
larger number than any recorded in any former period
of the same length," but in the four years preceding
this last Visitation (1875-1878) it had risen to 119,
an average of nearly 30 each year. I am glad to be
able to announce a still further increase. The number
ordained during the last four years will be 134, an
average of between 33 and 34 each year. Of these
107 have been ordained during the last three years,
since the new system was introduced, giving an
average of nearly 36 each year. But the last two
Ordinations of the present year have taken place
since the reduction of the diocese. The gain is there-
fore greater than it seems, and the candidates to be
ordained this Advent by the Bishop of Newcastle,
ought to be added to the numbers given in order to
estimate the increase. Moreover there is other ground
for satisfaction. The proportion of deacons from the
older universities, Oxford and Cambridge, in the four
years preceding the last Visitation was as nearly as
42 A Charyc.
possible one-fifth of the whole number. During
the last four years 68 out of 134, and during the
last three years 60 out of 107, have been
Oxford or Cambridge men. This result has not
been purchased, I am glad to say, by a sacrifice of
members of Durham University, whether graduates
or licentiates, as the proportion of these has not
very materially altered.17
(ii) Meeting of Curates.
The mention of the newly ordained leads me by a
natural transition to speak of another subject. It had
long been my desire to gather together from time to
time the younger clergy of the diocese for mutual
conference and common devotion. The reduction of
the diocese by the formation of the See of Newcastle
enabled me to realize this desire. The clergy who had
been ordained by myself and are still holding curacies
in the reduced Diocese of Durham were invited to
Auckland for a portion of two days. Though the
arrangements were unavoidably made at a late date,
so that only short notice could be given, as many as
70 of the younger clergy accepted the invitation. A
Greek Testament reading, a celebration of the Holy
Communion, chapel services with addresses, a con-
ference on a subject of pastoral interest, formed the
programme of the proceedings. I have reason to
think that the opportunity was appreciated by those
present, and I look forward to a recurrence of such
meetings.
A Charye. 43
(iii) Confirmations.
With the present year I inaugurated a new scheme
for the distribution of the Confirmation centres. It is
framed on the plan that every parish shall have a
Confirmation in its proper centre once in two years,
while in the alternate year candidates can be taken to
a second centre which, though not so near, shall not
be inconveniently distant. In all the large towrns
there is a Confirmation in one or other of the churches
every year.
I find that my intention has been misunderstood.
It has been supposed in some quarters that I wished
to discourage the presentation of candidates in the
alternate years at the second centres, and that I was
only providing for stray and exceptional cases. This
is the reverse of my motive. My ideal of the working
of a parish is a regular system of classes of instruction,
which shall lead up to the Confirmation class. Thus
the preparation for Confirmation wrould be going on
during some portion at least of every year ; and the
annual presentation of candidates would follow as a
matter of course. It was mainly in order to make the
realization of this system possible, that the plan of
double centres was devised. I put this forward as the
ideal ; but I have no desire to press it on the in-
cumbents of parishes. It may be felt in many cases
that the clerical strength at their disposal, being
limited, may be better employed in some other way.
To their discretion therefore I leave it.
44 A Charge.
By this new arrangement the number of centres and
the frequency of Confirmations in any given locality
has been largely increased. If it should be thought
advisable still further to increase the centres, I am
prepared to consider alterations in the scheme with
this view. But, independently of the Bishop's con-
venience, there are other considerations which suggest
a limit to the number of centres. A Confirmation in
every parish commends itself to some as the goal of
their aspirations. Even if this were possible, it does
not seem to me advisable. It might ensure a few
more candidates, though probably not many more.
It would have the further advantage that the friends
and relations of the persons confirmed could be able
to attend in larger numbers. But it would entail one
very real loss. The gathering together of candidates
from several parishes into one central church enlarges
and strengthens their conceptions of Church member-
ship ; and as such opportunities are very few, we
could not without regret forego the most important of
these.
The large increase in the number of persons con-
firmed is a matter for unfeigned thankfulness. I
know no better standard by which the progress of the
work of the Church can be measured than this. In
the four years ending 1878 the number confirmed was
17,502; in the four years ending 1882 it has mounted
to 25,815, thus exhibiting an increase of more than
45 per cent. But the numbers are still far short of
the standard at which we should aim. The proportion
A Charge. 45
of males to females is higher than in most dioceses,
being roughly as two to three.18
(iv) Church Building and Restoration.
The work of Church Building has been going on
vigorously in the diocese during the last four years,
notwithstanding the financial depression. During
this period eighteen churches have been consecrated.
The work of Church Restoration also has gone for-
ward on a large scale. From the Visitation returns
I find that in the County of Durham alone seven
Churches have been restored or enlarged, or both,
at an expenditure ranging between £5,000 and
£3,000 upon each ; while on as many others sums
ranging between £2,000 and £1,000 have been ex-
pended. The total sum spent in this county on
Churches, Mission Chapels, Parsonage Houses, Sun-
day and Day Schools, etc., as these returns show,
amounts to not less than £155,000.
At an earlier point in this charge I spoke about the
impending formation of new parishes. But a new
parish requires a new church. On this account alone
therefore the necessity of very extensive building
operations confronts us. But we have still arrears to
make up. In Gateshead alone three churches at least
should be built without delay — to meet the wants of
existing parishes. Some special effort therefore must
be made to supplement local resources. Either a very
large addition must be made to the resources of our
46 A Charge.
Diocesan Church Building Society, or a special fund
must be started to meet the special emergency.
Among the objects on which money had been
expended, I mentioned Mission Chapels. . There are
already, so far as I can make out from the returns,
which probably are not complete in this respect, not
fewer than 118 Chapels of Ease or Mission Chapels or
other rooms (in addition to the Parish Churches), where
Divine Service according to the rites of the Church of
England is regularly held, in the reduced diocese of
Durham. This gives an average of more than one to
every two parishes. From the general character of our
parishes, and the distribution of the population, we
may expect that the number of these subsidiary places
of worship will considerably increase — this being the
most efficient way of wrorking a large and scattered
parish. It is therefore proposed to supplement our
Diocesan Church Building Fund by a separate Mission
Chapel Fund, and I heartily commend this object to
the liberality of Churchmen.19
(v) Diocesan Calendar and Magazine.
The Diocesan Calendar has now been in existence
several years ; the Diocesan Magazine was started in
the beginning of 1881. I wish especially to call the
attention of the Clergy to the valuable services which
they may render to both these publications. The
editorship is a laborious, unremunerative, and thank-
less office. The editor therefore deserves the grati-
tude of us all. It rests with the clergy to lighten his
A Charge. 47
labours by supplying him with full and accurate infor-
mation. I hear some complaints that the Diocesan
Magazine is largely made up of information which has
appeared already in the daily newspapers. This repe-
tition is inevitable. I do not see how it can be other-
wise unless the Magazine is to forfeit its proper
character as a continuous record of work done in the
diocese. But it is not unreasonable to ask the local
clergy to transmit to the editor at an early date cor-
rected reports of events happening in their parishes,
so that he shall not be altogether dependent on
the daily Press. There is one other point also to
which I wish to advert in connexion with the
Magazine. I had hoped that within the limits of
the diocese it might take the place of a clerical agency.
If all incumbents who have curacies vacant would
notify the fact to the editor, this end would be in
some measure accomplished. Hitherto the notifi-
cations seem to have been somewhat irregularly made.
4. RETROSPECTIVE AND PROSPECTIVE.
The retrospect of four years cannot fail under any
circumstances to suggest many sad and solemnizing
thoughts. The interval which has elapsed since the
last Visitation has been marked by exceptionally
heavy losses to this diocese. The last words of his
Visitation charge had scarcely died away on your
ears, when your Diocesan announced his intention of
resigning the office which he had so long dis-
charged with unswerving assiduity and singleness of
48 A Charge.
purpose — to recruit his health, as his friends hoped,
and to spend his last years peacefully in a quiet
home, relieved from the cares of a burdensome and
anxious office — to render up his spirit, as the event
proved, to God who gave it, and to enter at once
into the fruition of a deeper and more abiding
peace. In the Cathedral Chapter too the losses of
these four years have been exceptionally great. The
stalls attached to the two Archdeaconries have been
vacated by death. By the death of the one Arch-
deacon we lost a cherished link with the past — the
courtly, kindly, stately gentleman — true type of
the nobler Churchmanship of his generation. After
a long career of active public service and diffusive
private benevolence, he was taken away — his full
term of years outlived and his allotted task accom-
plished. The other was carried off suddenly only the
other day in the prime of an energetic and vigorous
life. His calm judgment, his wide experience, his
placid temper, his moderating influence, his great
business capacities, were placed freely at the service
of all in this diocese. His departure has left a blank,
which will long be felt, in your counsels and in mine.
One other member too of the Capitular body, venerable
in years and character, if not venerable by title — John
Davie Bade — an earnest parochial minister and an
active diocesan administrator, has passed away amidst
the affectionate regrets of all. Among the parish
clergy also the obituary has been large — too large for
mention in detail. Some have faded slowly and
A Charge. 49
silently away in extreme old age ; with others the
thread of life was suddenly snapped in the noonday of
their usefulness and their vigour.20 In the ranks of
laymen too, who have rendered conspicuous service to
the Church, we are conscious of some serious gaps.
Of all those whose loss we deplore it would be impos-
sible to make mention. But the signal munificence of
John and Edward Joicey — par nobile fratrum — claims
the tribute of our grateful remembrance. Too soon
for us they have gone to their rest ; but generations
yet unborn will reap in temporal and spiritual blessings
the fruits of their large hearts and their open hands.
One other name too claims a special mention in this
County and Diocese. George second Earl of Durham
died in the prime of life. In his great influence and
wealth he recognized a responsible trust, a sacred
stewardship. The last time that I met him — a few
months before his death — was on the occasion of the
consecration of a church — the second which had been
built by his sole munificence.
Men come and men go ; but the stream of Church
life flows ceaselessly on, to lose itself at length in the
ocean of eternity. We count our losses irreparable, but
God repairs them. Volunteers start up to fill the
vacant places. The line is unbroken still, and the
army marches forward to do battle with the enemies
of the Israel of God.
Two exceptional events have occurred since the last
Visitation, which I cannot pass over without notice.
The first is the Newcastle Church Congress ; the second
50 A Charge.
the Jubilee of Durham University. The meetings
of the Congress are still fresh in our memories
after the lapse of more than a twelvemonth. It has
not passed away, I am sure, without bequeathing to us
a valuable inheritance in enlarged hopes, heightened
ideals, stronger and wider sympathies, a truer realiza-
tion of our duties and opportunities, and a fuller sense
of our privileges as members of the Church of Christ.
The Jubilee of our Northern University again is an
occurrence of no small significance. At once the seal
of past achievements and the pledge of future vitality,
it will have a deep interest for a diocese which draws
so large a proportion of its clergy from this recruiting
ground.
The last four years indeed have had their full tale
of calamities. Seaham and Trimdon, Tudhoe and
Stanley, are names which will suggest many sad
reminiscences. Catastrophes on this large scale
cannot fail to tell appreciably upon the work of the
Church. The cloud of commercial depression more-
over has only gradually been dispelled. The succession
of disastrous harvests too has affected these parts,
though in the county of Durham at least the agri-
cultural interests at stake are not so considerable as in
many parts. With all these drawbacks it is a matter
for deep thankfulness that the wrork of the Church has
advanced steadily and appreciably.
We have indeed been confronted with statistics of
Church attendance at some of our populous centres
which tell no flattering tale. It were to be desired
A Charge. 51
that a religious census, if taken at all, should be taken
by proper authorities. Private undertakings, however
honestly they may be conducted, must necessarily fail
in accuracy. They are instituted by particular persons
with special ends in view ; and such persons will
naturally have access to fuller information in some
quarters than in others. As regards Church atten-
dance, there is good reason to believe that those
complementary services which now occupy so promi-
nent a place in the work of the Church of England —
early communions, mission-room services, children's
school-room services, and the like, and which if re-
corded would have swelled the numbers largely — have
been altogether, or almost altogether overlooked, even
where more important omissions have not been made.
In the most populous centre in which these statistics
have been taken, and probably elsewhere, there is
good reason to believe that the recent quickening
of Church life has very considerably increased the
aggregate attendance on Sundays. At all events,
wherever authoritative and trustworthy information
is attainable — as for instance in the registers of
marriages or funerals, or in the statistics of the army
or navy or of workhouses or of other public insti-
tutions, or in the contributions to philanthropic
purposes such as hospitals, or in the expenditure on
elementary schools — the position of the Church of
England in point of numbers and influence appears
strikingly at variance with the results suggested by
these statistics.21
52 A Charge.
But after every allowance made for errors, one
sad fact remains — a fact which all would do well
to ponder — that great masses of our people are
living practically without God in the world, un-
touched alike by the ministrations of the Church
clergy and of Nonconformist ministers. Well would
it be for England, well for the Church of Christ in
this land, if each religious body would do its own
work, earnestly, peacefully, devotedly — content to
spend on enlightening the souls and reclaiming the
lives of men the energy which too often is exhausted
in religious and political warfare. " All they that
take the sword shall perish with the sword " — the sword
whether of sectarian polemics or of political rancour.
There may be no slight provocation, when a weapon
is at hand, to use it ; but the Master's warning voice
to His disciples is still the same, " Put up thy sword
into the sheath/' The polemical temper is its own
judge and its own executioner. Whensoever religion
degenerates into politics — whether in Church or sect,
whether in minister or congregation — its fate is sealed.
The Spirit is grieved, is quenched ; and only the
lifeless body of religion remains.
From the retrospect we turn to the prospect. The
achievements in the past may be allowed to inspire the
hopes for the future. The four years just elapsed have
been largely occupied in organization and re-arrange-
ment. This work is not yet completed. In a diocese
like Durham, where the population increases so rapidly,
anything like finality in the external arrangements is
A Charge. 53
beyond hope. Ever fresh modifications and enlarge-
ments will be necessary to meet the growing and
changing wants. But the four years to come will
properly be spent much more in completing existing
arrangements, in working upon lines already laid
down, and in vivifying the external organizations
which have been created. The machinery of dio-
ceses, of archdeaconries and deaneries, of parishes, of
ministries and associations, is a dead, inert, unpro-
ductive thing if the motive power be wanting. And
this motive power can come only from one source. 4< It
is the Spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh" — the external
mechanism, the formal organization — " profit eth
nothing. The words that I speak to you — they are
Spirit, and they are life." If this voice of Christ be
silent in our hearts, then it is all lost labour that we
perfect our ecclesiastical machinery. This machinery
is a good conductor of spiritual energy, but the energy
itself it cannot create. The fiery baptism of the Spirit
may not be replaced by any visible or tangible in-
vention of man.
Our difficulties no doubt are great. The spiritual
arrears bequeathed by past generations are enormous.
The special perplexities and aberrations of our own
age — intellectual and social — are not few. But I
should be faithless if I spoke any other language to-
day than the language of hope. Where so many
bright experiences have been vouchsafed in the past,
no place is left for despair as to the future. Have I
not seen, not once or twice only, a parish which had
54 A Char ye.
long lain a spiritual wilderness, a proverb and bye-
word to the foes of the Church, suddenly quickened
into fresh and vigorous life under a new incumbent
or curate in charge, attracting and inspiring fellow-
labourers by his zeal and self-denial ? Have I not
found men willing, at their Bishop's summons, to
forego an adequate and assured competency, and to
labour in some unpromising and arduous field on a
bare curate's stipend, with an uncertain future before
them, because they regarded the summons as a call
from God, thus shaming my own faint heart by the
strength of their faith ? Does not the history of the
Newcastle Bishopric Fund — the liberal donations of the
many, the princely munificence of the few — read a lesson
full of encouragement and hope ? Are not the Confir-
mation returns — manifesting a large and sudden in-
crease in the numbers presented — a truly inspiring
fact ? Seeing all these things, can we do otherwise
than bow our heads in thanksgiving and cry from the
fulness of an overflowing heart, " Yea, the Lord hath
done great things for us already, whereof we re-
joice;" " Wilt not Thou, 0 God, go forth with our
hosts?" ; " Through God will we do great acts ; for it
is He that shall tread down our enemies" — our enemies,
because His enemies.
A Chart je. 55
II.
Cljurd).
The former part of my charge was occupied wholly
with matters relating to the diocese. I purpose now
to discuss questions which have a wider interest. In
some cases these affect us directly in the same way as
they affect the whole Church. In others we have no
immediate practical interest in them ; but yet we
cannot thrust them aside, The diocese is a part of
a larger body, and the suffering of any one member
must soon or late involve the suffering of all. To
this latter class of subjects belongs the dispute about
vestments. The ritual difficulty, I am thankful to
say, is unknown among us ; and I trust that it
will always so remain. But we cannot ignore it.
1.
The Burial Laws Amendment Act.
The most important recent Act of the Legislature
affecting the Church has been the Burials Act of 1880.
My vote was given in favour of the measure, and I
have seen no cause since to regret it. I could never
indeed acknowledge that it was required as a matter
of justice, but it seemed to me to be a wise and
56 A Charge.
generous concession to a widespread sentiment which
deserved to be treated with all respect. Any wrangling
over the open grave is abhorrent to our feelings, and
it is vain at such times to expect men to be ruled
solely and absolutely by considerations of strict justice.
No more disadvantageous ground could have been
chosen for fighting the battle of the Church. It
would have been highly perilous to her health to
have kept open this running sore any longer. The
minor provisions of the Act indeed went beyond the
requirements of either justice or sentiment, and I voted
against some of these. But it was contended by the
promoters of the Bill that, while giving, it was well to
give ungrudgingly. To some of its opponents a
main ground of objection was the fear that the treat-
ment of the churchyards would form a precedent for
the treatment of the churches. If this had been so,
the Bill would have met with the most determined
opposition from a very large number of those who
supported it. But Ministers of the Crown and other
chief promoters of the measure, in both Houses, not
only disclaimed any such motive in their own minds,
but emphatically denied any analogy between the two
cases.
The passing of this Act, among other important
questions, involved an immediate decision on one
point. The Act threw open consecrated as well as
unconsecrated ground to other rites of Christian burial
besides those of *the Church of England. It became
a question therefore whether henceforward cemeteries
A Charge. 57
and additions to churchyards should continue to be
consecrated as hitherto or not. This appeared to me to
be a matter on which — though I had my own
opinion — I ought not to act without ascertaining the
general sentiment of those more directly affected.
The value of such consecration seemed to me to
depend on the extent to which it was upheld by the
sentiment of the clergy and laity of the Church of
England in the diocese. I therefore laid the matter
before the Archdeacons and Rural Deans at our
annual meeting at Auckland Castle. This was happily
an exceptionally full meeting, and I was glad to find
that without a single dissentient voice those present
pronounced in favour of the continuance of the ancient
practice. With much satisfaction I learnt afterwards
that this was also the opinion of the great body of
the English episcopate. For those indeed who were
unable to regard the Consecration Service otherwise
than as a dedication restricting the ground to the rites
of the Church of England, it was impossible to take
this view. In this case such a service could only be
a self-stultification. But this was not my own view ;
and I have therefore continued to consecrate when
invited by the proper authorities and assured of the
proper safeguards. The Act directly provides that
the rites shall be a ' Christian and orderly religious
service,' and expressly condemns the attempt at
funerals conducted under its provisions ' to bring into
contempt or obloquy the Christian religion, or the
belief or worship of any Church or denomination of
58 A Char ye.
Christians.' This guarantee seemed to justify the
dedication of ground which, though henceforth not
exclusively, yet principally would be devoted to the
burial rites of the Church of England, by a solemn
form of prayer.
But another question arises under the new Act. A
clergyman may be invited to perform a funeral in
unconsecrated ground. What is to be done under
these circumstances ? Is the grave to be specially
dedicated or not ? Looking at the Consecration
Service of a churchyard as a setting apart of the
ground and separating it from profane and unhallowed
uses for a special purpose, I do not (where this is
found impossible) see sufficient reason for the special
consecration of individual graves. In such cases I
should be content to regard the burial service itself
as an adequate dedication. For this reason I have
not authorized any form for the consecration of
graves. There can indeed be no objection in
principle to the use of any edifying form of prayer in
such cases, where a clergyman desires it. Only I
conceive that it cannot be made part of the Burial
Service itself, because neither under the Act itself nor
elsewhere is he authorized to use in funeral rites any
form of words but ' prayers taken from the Book of
Common Prayer and portions of Holy Scripture ', and
these only as ' prescribed or approved of by the
Ordinary.' I fear also that such a practice might be
misunderstood, and therefore I should not wish to
encourage it.
A Charge. 59
It will be a matter of great interest to the clergy
to learn what has been the working of the Act in this
diocese. As the presbyterian element in our popu-
lation is disproportionately great owing to our
proximity to the Scottish border, as our mining and
industrial centres comprise a very large number of
Koman Catholics, and as Nonconformity of various
kinds is exceptionally active and powerful, it has
probably nowhere been put to so severe a test as in
this diocese. It is therefore with great satisfaction
that I give you the results, as they appear in the
Visitation returns. Full and correct returns have
been made of 111 Consecrated Churchyards. The
total number of funerals in these since the passing of
the Act amounts to 12,823. Of this number 521
only have been taken by others besides clergy of the
Church of England — making a proportion of about 4
per cent. The great majority of these howrever are
Roman Catholic funerals. In 1 2 only out of the 111
parishes is a separation made in the returns between
funerals taken by Eomari Catholic priests and those
taken by Nonconformist ministers and others not
being clergy of our Church. The number of Roman
Catholic funerals in these parishes is 213; the number
of other dissenting funerals only 54 ; so that in the
aggregate the Roman Catholic funerals amount to
nearly four fifths of the whole. It would not however
be safe to draw any general inference from this fact,
as these were probably places which contain an
exceptionally large Roman Catholic population. Of
60 A Charge.
the 111 consecrated churchyards of which I have
returns, I find that in 47 there were no funerals
except according to the rites of the Church of
England; in 17 others there was only one; and
in 7 others again there were only two. These
statistics tell their own tale. But different in-
ferences will be drawn from them respecting the Act
itself. To some they will appear to show that it was
unnecessary and therefore ought not to have been
passed ; to others that the objections against it have
proved groundless, and that it is justified by the event.
For myself I feel that a grievance — a sentimental
grievance if you will, but not the less real on that
account — has been removed by the Act; that the results
have shown how firm a hold the rites of the Church of
England have on the affections of the people at the
most solemn moments ; and that in all ways our
position is stronger for the concession.
But there is also another side to the Act. It not
only made concessions to the dissenters, but also
afforded relief to the clergy. The necessity of reading
the whole of the Burial Service over every one — even
the most profligate — with certain specified exceptions
was a grievous burden to the conscience ; the pro-
hibition against reading any part of it in these
exceptional cases was sometimes, as for instance over
unbaptized persons, a painful disability. An alterna-
tive service, framed in accordance with the provisions
of the Act, and approved by a large number of the
Bishops, has been provided. Giving a choice of
A Charge. 61
psalms, lessons, and collects, it is sufficiently flexible
to meet all cases. I have authorized its use for
my diocese (Diocesan Magazine, August 1881, p.
118 sq.) ; and I find that it has been employed
in several instances. These have not been very
numerous, and it is not desirable that they should
be so ; but the advantage of having such an alterna-
tive service to fall back upon has obviously been felt
by the clergy in these cases.
The Act therefore has worked smoothly in this
diocese. The fears which many entertained have not
been justified. There has been no burial scandal
among us which can fairly be traced to the Act. But
while saying this I wish to give honour where honour
is due. This peaceful result is owing mainly to the
loyal acceptance by the parochial clergy of a measure
which was most distasteful to a large number of them,
and which might have led to serious consequences if
they had shown a different temper. But they have
postponed their own private feelings to the peace of
the Church, and they have had and will have their
reward.22
2.
Permanent Diaconate.
A measure for supplying the existing defects of our
ministerial agency which attracts great and increasing
favour is the establishment of a permanent diaconate.
I wish I could myself contemplate such a measure with
the unmixed satisfaction and the absence of misgiving
which its champions manifest. It is proposed that
G2 A CJiarge.
persons either possessing private means or engaged in
trade or business or exercising a profession should be
admitted to this order, without relinquishing their
secular avocations ; that they should, if necessary,
receive a small stipend to supplement their means
of livelihood gained in other ways, though some
might be prepared to give their services gratuitously ;
that they should enter upon the office without any
intention or prospect of being advanced to the higher
order of the priesthood ; and that (as a consequence)
the intellectual and educational standard of admission
to the diaconate should be lowered — the severer
examination, in which alone a knowledge of the
learned languages would be required, being reserved
for the candidates for Priests' orders.
Against this measure I have no objection to urge
on principle. I do not see how I can find fault with
the pursuit of secular avocations in the ministers of a
Church whose chief Apostle was a tent-maker. Prece-
dents too in later ages are sufficiently frequent to
justify this combination of the spiritual office with the
secular work. Nor again can I interpret the ' good
degree ' of 1 Tim. iii. 1 3 in any such way as to imply
that the promotion of deacons to the higher office
ought to be the rule in the Church of Christ. The laws
of our own branch of the Church do indeed present
some difficulties, but these might be overcome. The
Statute (1 and 2 Viet. c. 106, sect. 27), which forbids
spiritual persons holding office in the Church to
engage in business or trade, might perhaps be
A Charge. f>3
liberally interpreted so as to allow professional men,
still exercising their profession, to take Holy Orders ;
and it certainly does not exclude persons of means,
who do not earn their bread in any of these ways.
Neither again are the prohibitions in the Canons
a formidable obstacle. The 75th Canon only
forbids ' any base or servile labour ' ; and the 76th
Canon merely orders that any person admitted priest
or deacon shall not ' afterwards use himself in the
course of his life as a layman ' — a vague expression
and capable of being so interpreted as to cover the
measure in question. A more stubborn ecclesiastical
barrier is the office for the Ordering of Deacons in the
Prayer Book, which both in the prayer for the newly
ordained and in the final rubric contemplates their
proceeding within a reasonably short interval to the
higher order. Yet even this might be taken to
express the normal practice, to which exceptions
might be freely made.
But, waiving these questions of ecclesiastical law,
of which the solution perhaps would not be very
difficult, I foresee the possibility of grave adminis-
trative complications arising out of the creation of
such a diaconate. It is intended, I suppose, that the
orders of these deacons should be regarded as in-
delible. A deacon once created is a deacon for life
in the eye of the Church. He is permanently resident
in the parish where he is called to minister. Not
improbably he is tied to it by his business avocations.
Thus he establishes a position of influence by his
64 A Charge.
personal relations and his continuous abode in the
parish. If he has ability and eloquence, his power
will be very considerable. He will gather about him
a large circle of friends and admirers. Moreover he
will receive a stipend which, though not very large, is
a consideration to him ; and he would feel aggrieved
if it ceased without his own free will. But the
incumbent changes from time to time ; and it is
not difficult to see that complications may arise from
this fact. The removal of a deacon from his minis-
trations may set a whole parish on fire. The case of
a curate presents no analogy, because he has not as a
rule any domestic ties in the place and he speedily
departs to some other sphere of labour without serious
inconvenience to himself. But a permanent deacon
would remain as a focus of disaffection, if the
elements of disaffection were there. The weight of
parochial influence in fact has been transferred from
the chief officer to his subordinate. The centre of
gravity has thereby been removed to a dangerous
position, and the parish is kept in a state of unstable
equilibrium. Meanwhile the deacon himself has a
right to feel dissatisfied. He is invested with an
office which he cannot shake off; and yet he is not
allowed to perform the functions or to reap the
advantages of his office.
Incidentally also, there is another serious difficulty
which strikes forcibly, perhaps too forcibly, one who has
himself been an examining chaplain for seventeen years.
The promoters of this measure contemplate making
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the examination for Priests' Orders the really search-
ing intellectual test. But experience shows that it is
impossible to enforce a higher standard in this second
examination than in the earlier. The candidate for
Deacons' Orders during his preparation could at least
call his time his own ; but the interval between the
first and the second ordination is engrossed with
parochial work. Hence, so far as my experience goes,
it is the exception rather than the rule, when a man
passes a more satisfactory examination for Priests'
than for Deacons' Orders. In those parts of the ex-
amination in which his practical experience tells, he will
be found to have made an advance ; but where his
intellectual acquisitions are tested, his answers will
be less satisfactory than they were before.
But, it will be said, this scheme for a permanent
diaconate is after all only a restoration of the normal
practice in the primitive Church ; and we cannot do
wrong if we follow this practice with an implicit faith
as to the results. My answer is this. If you would
remodel the Church organization after the primitive
type, you must do so in all respects. It will not
answer to take one piece out of a complex organiza-
tion, expecting that it will work in the same way,
though the mechanism connected with it is quite
different. If the diaconate in the primitive Church
was permanent and localized, so was the presbyterate.
If the primitive deacons maintained themselves by
plying their trade or their business, so did the
primitive priests. Moreover the presbyteral office
66 A Charge.
was commonly represented by a body of men (a pres-
bytery) not by a single individual, and thus it
commanded the influence of numbers. There was
therefore no danger of the result which I apprehend
under present conditions — the transference of the
centre of gravity to a position imperilling the stability
of a church.
I bring forward these considerations, not because I
wish to regard them as conclusive, though to my own
mind they are very serious ; but because I desire to
direct attention to them. But there is yet another
question which we may pertinently ask. Even if the
legal difficulties were overcome, even if the practical
objections were overruled, would this creation of a
permanent diaconate do all or nearly all that we
want ?
I do not think it would. There would be a certain
relief as regards the actual ministrations within the
Church, but these are very far from constituting the
main part of an active incumbent's duties ; and, if the
relief were given in other directions, the pressure of
these would be less felt. But for mission services,
for cottage lectures, for teaching in the schools, for
visiting the sick, and a fortiori for other less spiritual
functions than these, such as keeping accounts and
the like, lay agency would probably be found as
effective and would be far more largely available.
The curate, though only in deacon's orders is much
more valuable now to the incumbent than the layman,
because spiritual ministrations are the main business
A Charge. 67
of his life. But as soon as they cease to be this — as
they would cease with these semi-secular deacons — it
is reduced to a question of degree. Meanwhile the
loss is serious. The most competent and conscientious
laymen would probably object to being invested with
a ministerial office which, involving grave responsi-
bilities, would cling to them for life, no matter what
may be the change in their external circumstances.
Thus the field of choice would be limited. Meanwhile,
if adopted as a substitute for the Lay Keadership of
which I spoke in a former part of my charge — and
this seems the view entertained by many of its sup-
porters— it would involve another serious loss. The
value of the Lay Header's ministrations will consist to
a large extent in the twofold fact that they are
gratuitous and that they are not clerical. The one
advantage probably, the other certainly, would be
forfeited by the adoption of the Permanent Diaconate
instead.23
3.
The Salvation Army.
A new and complex problem has been offered to
the Church of England since the last Visitation. A
remarkable organization for evangelizing the masses has
sprung up suddenly into maturity and is invading all
our towns and many of our more populous villages. It
has thrown out branches into our colonies, into our
Indian dependency, into America, even into the
nations of continental Europe.
The Salvation Army has now been in existence for
68 A Charge.
seventeen years ; but its most rapid strides have been
made within the last four or five years. During this
time it seems to have advanced with ever accelerated
pace. It has occupied a prominent place in Episcopal
Charges, in Diocesan Conferences, in Church Con-
gresses, in platform speeches, in review articles, in
all those various instrumentalities through which the
Church makes her voice heard. A Bishop, addressing
his Clergy at such a moment, could not, even if he
had the wish, be silent about an organization which
seems to be fraught with such important issues
whether for good or for evil, and towards which the
attitude of the Church of England cannot be a matter
of indifference.
The leading characteristic of this organization is
from one point of view its great recommendation. It
emphatically disclaims the intention of setting up a
new sect. ' We are not and will not be made a
Church/ say the Orders and Regulations in explicit
terms (p. 4). It is intended, in the language of its
General, to ' leave to the Churches all who wish mere
Church life' (Contemporary Review, August 1882,
p. 181). Thus, as an organization, it stands outside
all the Churches, while any individual member may
belong to any community which he prefers. This
feature makes it easy to deal with, at least in theory.
"What may be the practical difference, I shall consider
hereafter. But it has stood the Army in good stead ;
' By these means,' writes its chief officer, ' we have
certainly attained already a most friendly footing in
J Chary. 69
relation to all Churches in many localities/ and he
expresses the hope that before long they will have
spread far and wide a spirit ' of love and hearty
co-operation that will do much to lessen the dividing
walls of sectarianism' (ib. pp. 181, 182).
I wish before all things not to stint my praise,
where praise is due. The Salvation Army has many
valuable lessons to teach us, if only we will consent to
learn them. First and foremost I place the ideal of
evangelistic work, to which I have referred in a former
part of my charge. The high-handed faith which
refuses to believe that the Gospel was intended for
the few, the magnificent courage which attacks not
individuals or families, but whole towns and whole
neighbourhoods — this twofold protest, both doctrinal
and practical, against all narrowness ought surely to
command our warmest admiration. Again the stress
which is laid on the Fatherly Love of God, as the
central idea of the Incarnation and the Gospel message,
exalts and spiritualizes its dogmatic teaching. So
too its persistent protest against antinomianism dis-
tinguishes it favourably from other forms of revivalism
to which it bears external resemblances. Whatever
may be its extravagances or its shortcomings, it aims
at a distinct moral reform in its converts.
Nor again can its successes be denied. The
character of the movement indeed seems to vary
much in different localities with the officers in com-
mand. Hence the very divergent opinions which
are formed by men equally unprejudiced. If I were
70 A Char ye.
justified in estimating the movement as a whole from
the partial facts which have come within my own
cognizance, I should certainly place it higher than it
is placed by others whose larger experience I respect,
or than the extravagance of its own organs would
suggest. But anyhow its effects speak for themselves.
If it had done nothing else, it would have achieved
a notable triumph in reclaiming so many thousands of
drunkards in the name of Christ.
The Salvationists claim our respect also from the
hostility which they have provoked. We cannot but
regard it as an honourable distinction that they have
been exposed to attacks from the lowest and most
degraded rabble of our towns. If this hostility has
been elicited in some measure by their flaunting
attitude, it has had its roots in the consciousness that
the strongholds of vice were endangered by their
assaults.
But if its achievements are notable, so also have
been and are its faults. I do not class among these
the name which it has adopted. The title Salvation
Army, besides suggesting the peculiar character of the
organization, is a great moral parable to its members.
Nor again have we any right to complain of its craving
after notoriety. To get into the newspapers, to keep
themselves before the public, to cover the walls with
startling placards — this is the frankly avowed rule of
the Salvationists. But why should we complain of
this ? Men must be known first before they can be
heard. They must arrest first before they can convince.
A Charge. 71
On this same ground also a certain amount of what
is called sensationalism may be pardoned. But the
exaltation of sensationalism into a system is perilous
in the extreme. Crescit indulgens sibi ; it begets a
craving which only increases by gratification. This is
manifest already in the progress of the Salvation
Army. In an organization framed to produce sub-
stantial and lasting results the sensational element
should gradually give way to calm and patient
methods of instruction. Of this I see as yet no signs
in the movements of the Salvation Army. In its later
public acts, as may be seen from its own organs, there
is not only no abatement, but there is a positive
increase in this respect. Sensationalism, and still
more sensationalism, is its daily food. But granting
for a moment that this amount of sensationalism is
necessary, care should at least be taken that its
character is in harmony with its aims. Nothing, I
venture to think, can excuse the irreverence of its
manifestations in this case. I would not wish to
exaggerate. I do not for a moment hold the leaders
responsible, except indirectly, for the excesses of
their followers. I cannot refuse to accept the testi-
mony of impartial witnesses, that at the meetings of
the Salvation Army the demonstrations which, read
calmly in the newspaper reports the next morning,
strike the ear as irreverent even to the verge of
blasphemy, are often redeemed at the moment by the
obvious sincerity of the principal agents. But the
fact remains, that the most solemn events of Biblical
72 A Charyc.
history are travestied and the Saviour's name is
profaned in parodies of common songs. Awe and
reverence are the soul of the religious life. He therefore,
who degrades the chief objects of religion by profane
associations, strikes however unintentionally at the
very root of religion. Nor again does it seem to me
that any justification is possible of the encouragement
given to children six or eight or ten years old to
advertise publicly their own conversion and as publicly
to proclaim the non-conversion of their parents. Yet
this is the staple of the news in the columns of the
Little Soldier. The dangerous unreality of all this—
not the less dangerous because it may be unconscious in
children of tender age — needs no comment. Yet these
painful exhibitions are not only permitted, but en-
couraged and stimulated to the greatest extent by
authority.
But the merits or defects, the successes or the
failures, of the movement are after all rather the con-
cern of the Salvationists than of ourselves. Our
practical interest in the subject is summed up in two
questions. What can we learn from their aims and
methods ? and, What should be our attitude as Church-
men towards them ?
The lessons which they can teach us are neither few
nor unimportant. I have already spoken of the
courageous attempt to grapple with vice and infidelity
in the masses — the magnificent hopefulness of the
movement. Then there is the boldness and uncon-
ventionality of the methods. The Church of England
A Charge. 73
has awoke or is fast awaking to the fact that however
great may be the value of its recognised instru-
mentalities in training a body of believers, it must take
a fresh starting point and employ new agencies, if it is
ever to overtake the spiritual arrears and evangelize
the practical heathenism of the masses. The Salvation
Army has thrown out new ideas of method. These
will need careful sifting. Much will have to be
rejected as unlawful on principle ; much will be put
aside as condemning itself by its results ; but surely
there is underlying all the extravagances and defects
a residuum of highly valuable and suggestive matter of
which we should do well to take account. What can
be ]earnt from its military character ? Stripped of its
absolutism, in which it glories but which must soon
or late prove its dissolution, does it not contain in
itself the seeds of a more perfect type of organization
than any with which we are familiar ? What again are
the lessons taught by its assiduous courting of notoriety,
by its practice of public witnessing, by its finding
immediate employment for its new converts ? I
strongly recommend those of my clergy, who have not
done so already, to make themselves acquainted with
the chief publications of the movement, not only the
Orders and Regulations and the Doctrines and
Discipline, but also those less directly authoritative,
but even more instructive works, such as Salvation
Soldiery, Aggressive Christianity, Heathen England,
and the like. I recommend this, not only because they
cannot otherwise obtain a full knowledge of the
74 A Char ye.
significance of the movement — alike in its strength
and in its weakness — but still more because (if I
mistake not) they will find in them many stimulating
and suggestive thoughts which will aid them in their
own parochial organizations and ministry.
But a second and still more difficult question
remains to be answered ; What should be our
demeanour, as Churchmen, towards the Salvation
Army ? Some would recommend an attitude of strict
neutrality. Their counsel is summed up in the words
of Gamaliel, ' Refrain from these men, and let them
alone/ This letting alone no doubt is an easy solution,
but is it satisfactory ? The disposition of Gamaliel was
truer than the disposition of the Sadducaic chief-priests;
but I do not see that it is commended in itself. It was
Gamaliel's business to try and find out whether this
counsel and this work was of men, or of God. The
attitude of the rulers of the Church of England
towards Wesley in the last century has been deeply
deplored in more recent times ; and there has naturally
been an anxiety not to repeat the mistake. Hence a
strong desire has been manifested on the part of many
in authority to maintain friendly relations with the
members of the Salvation Army.
I confess that my own sympathies have been
altogether with this last view. It is urged indeed
that this new form of revivalism differs in essential
points from the Wesleyan movement; that Wesley
for instance professed a great reverence for the Sacra-
ments and other Church ordinances which are entirely
A Charge. 75
ignored by the Salvationists ; that — to say nothing
else — Wesleyanism arose in the bosom of the Church
itself, whereas the Salvation Army is altogether an
external organization. This is true ; but I cannot rid
myself of the conviction that the same temper, which
turns its back on the Salvation Army without enquiry,
would also have had nothing to say to Wesley. The
unconventional methods and the undeniable extrava-
gances (for we must not forget the paroxysms which
followed on Wesley's preaching) are often the real
deterrents in the one case as in the other. For this
reason, whenever I have been consulted by the Clergy,
I have advised them to cultivate friendly relations
with the Salvationists so far as this could be done
without any unworthy compromise. Believing, as we
do, that our Lord became incarnate not only to save
individual souls but also to establish a visible kingdom
upon earth, holding likewise that Baptism and the
Holy Communion were especially ordained by Christ
Himself not only as special means of grace but also
as bonds of membership in His body, we cannot do
anything which tends to disparage either the Church
or the Sacraments. But without any unworthy con-
cession on these points, there were obviously ways
in which sympathy could be shown. Accordingly
special services have been held with my approval in
some churches for members of the Salvation Army ;
and in other ways co-operation has been found possible
in some localities. It seemed to me that no oppor-
tunity should be lost by the clergy of guiding a
76 A Charge.
movement which, amidst many deplorable extrava-
gances, contained so many elements of the highest
good.
Though I confess that I am less hopeful of the
movement than I was at first — for I seem to see its
errors and its extravagances developing more rapidly
than its excellences, as time goes on — I have no reason
to regret the advice given, I do not see that we
render ourselves responsible for these excesses by such
sympathy and guidance as I have indicated. It would
rather have been a matter of reproach, if by our
coldness or inaction we lost our opportunity of
influencing a movement which might have been made
subservient to the highest interests of the Church of
Christ.
But I see that such sympathy and co-operation is
becoming daily more difficult. In theory indeed
there is no barrier. The Salvation Army, as I said,
repudiates the idea of setting up a church or a sect.
But this repudiation is more theoretical than real. If
its leaders would only be content to hold firmly to
what seems to have been its first ideal, devoting
themselves to the work of arousing souls from sin and
drawing them towards Christ, but leaving them, when
thus awakened and converted, to seek elsewhere the
more continuous and fuller instruction which it has no
means of supplying, and the privileges of Church
membership and the benefits of the Sacraments which
it altogether ignores — it might still do a truly mag-
nificent, though incomplete, work, But it is fast
A Charge. 77
receding from this position. It is setting up its
organization as a substitute for a Church. It is
insisting upon this to the practical exclusion of Church
membership in its adherents. This is the consequence
of its militarism, which is at once its strength and its
weakness. Every other consideration is made to bend
before the exigencies of its organization. Thus, while
professedly initial, it is making itself practically final.
It is attempting to absorb all the religious life of its
members in itself. It is fast degenerating into a sect.24
4.
The Revised New Testament.
The year 1881 marks a signal epoch in the history
of the English Bible. From the first appearance of
Tyndall's New Testament in 1525 to the publication
of the so called Authorized Version in 1611, the
English Bible had undergone repeated revision. But
the Version of King James was destined to reign
without a rival for 270 years. It had indeed been
touched from time to time by private adventurers ;
but no serious and authoritative revision had been
attempted. Yet meanwhile Greek scholarship had
made great strides ; aids to exegesis had accumulated
on all hands ; materials for the text had increased
manifold, so that textual criticism, which can hardly
be said to have existed at all at the beginning of this
period, had grown into a vigorous maturity. But all
faults had been condoned for the sake of its pure
English, its majestic rhythm, and its familiar cadences.
78 A Charge.
Thus it held undisputed sway. A veneration has
been accorded to it hardly less than the idolatry of
the Massoretic text in the Hebrew or the Vulgate
translation in the Latin.
This had not been so from the beginning. When it
first appeared, it was assailed with a torrent of abuse.
An eminent Hebrew scholar declared that he would
sooner be ' torn in pieces than any such translation
by his consent should be urged upon the poor
Church of England/ Other assailants were still
more violent. Even the learned Selden could only
speak of it as ' being well enough so long as scholars
have to do with it, but when it comes among the
common people/ he added, ' what gear do they make
of it !' A generation after its appearance my name-
sake, the great Hebraist, preaching before the House of
Commons in 1645, still urged the desirableness of
a revision of the Scriptures.
The circumstances under which the Eevised Version
was made are well known to all. A Committee ap-
pointed in the first instance by the Houses of the
Southern Convocation and enlarged by co-optation
sat for ten years and a half. It was composed of
members of various schools of opinion within the
Church of England, and of various Christian com-
munities without. An American Committee also was
formed, to which the work was transmitted from time
to time for their suggestions, which were carefully
considered. The version was revised and re-revised.
No labour was spared to secure a satisfactory result.
A Charge. 79
The reception of the work is fresh in all our mem-
ories. The demand for it has been far beyond any
parallel in literary history. It has been sold in Eng-
land, if report be true, not by tens of thousands but
by millions. It was reproduced whole, the day after
its publication, in more than one American news-
paper. It is found in cheap editions at every bookstall.
It has been criticized far and wide, in magazine
articles, in newspaper correspondence, in separate
tracts and volumes, in sermons and charges.
Amidst all this criticism we are not surprised to find
a few uncompromising antagonists. Its paramount
claim to the respect of future generations will — I say
this advisedly — be the restitution of a more ancient
and purer text. Yet this is the very point which has
called forth the severest censure. The appearance of
the Eevised Version was almost simultaneous with the
publication of a critical text of the New Testament
which has already vindicated its claim to the foremost
place not only in England but on the Continent also,
and will henceforward mark an era in textual criticism.
Through the kindness of the editors the revisers
had already had in their hands the sheets of this work
while the revision was going on. This has been made
the ground of accusation against the revisers' text.
The similarities have been carefully noted, the diver-
gences have been ignored. As regards the coincidences
themselves, adverse critics have overlooked the fact
that in all the most important points in which the
revisers have adopted the same reading with the two
80 A Charge.
editors, they are supported likewise by one or other,
sometimes by all, of the critical editions of the Greek
Testament in recent times. Accordingly it has been
represented that the revisers were led blindfold by the
two editors, who also themselves were members of the
body. A glance at the composition of the company
ought alone to have prevented this surmise. No
gathering of men was so likely, from the diversities of
their previous training and prepossessions, to exercise
independent and individual judgment on the questions
submitted to them. If therefore the requisite majority
of two-thirds was obtained in favour of any particular
reading, it can only have been because the arguments
commended themselves to the better judgment of the
company. In the earlier stages the debated readings
would naturally provoke more discussion, but gradually
the accumulation of separate examples would furnish
a storehouse of experience, and the inductions thus
gained would furnish principles for future guidance
which materially abridged the later debates. This
would be the natural course of procedure in such a
body ; and it is no breach of confidence to say that
such was the actual fact. But there was no sacrifice
of independent judgment; because, when the principles
were once seen and recognized by the great majority,
the application of those principles to individual texts
was easy.
The Bible Society has — I am informed — permitted
its translators to adopt the text of the Eevised
Version where it commends itself to their judgment.
A Charye. 81
In this they have, I venture to think, exercised a wise
discretion. Indeed I do not see how they could, with a
proper sense of their responsibility to the heathen, have
refused to allow some latitude in the matter of the
text. It seems to be thought in some quarters that
there is danger only in departing from the received
readings. But is not the danger far greater in a
stubborn conservatism ? It is one thing to retain a
confessedly spurious passage such as the Three
Heavenly Witnesses in our existing English Version,
though this may be painful enough. But it is quite
another to introduce the words into a new foreign
translation, thus deliberately sowing the seed of future
misgivings and scepticisms, which may spring up a
rank harvest of trouble in the generations to come.
The other point, on which adverse criticism has
fastened, is the English of the Eevised Version.
On this question the verdict of the present genera-
tion cannot be unprejudiced. The ear, which
has been accustomed to one rhythm in a well-
known-passage, will not tolerate another, though it
inay be as good or better. And as with rhythm, so
with diction. The familiar word or expression has,
from long habit, attained a sanctity which bars the
way to any rival. Time only can arbitrate fairly.
But an important question arises with respect to
the use of the Eevised Version. It is well known
that the highest legal authority in this land has given
his opinion that the so-called Authorized Version
alone can lawfully bo used in the Church. There is
8:2 A Cliaiye.
indeed no direct evidence — beyond the words on the
title-page — that it ever was authorized ; but the
council books and registers of this period were des-
troyed, as the Lord Chancellor has pointed out, by
fire ; and moreover its substitution for a previous
version in the Gospels and Epistles in the Prayer
Book at the last revision might be thought to convey
indirectly an authorization.
Nevertheless the point seems to me far from clear.
It may be a question whether the words on the title-
page 'Appointed to be read in Churches' are intended
to be permissive or compulsory. It is certain that
even in the King's Chapel long after its appearance
preachers took their texts from the older version.25
But still, regarding the matter as uncertain, I
would not on the ground of a doubtful legality
encourage my clergy to use the Eevised Version in
their churches ; and obviously much inconvenience and
possibly some scandal might arise from the separate
action of individuals where the voice of authority is
silent.
5.
Vestment*.
The peace of the Church has been troubled during
the few years past by a question which it is difficult
to regard as important in itself but which neverthe-
less raises momentous side issues and has threatened
from time to time to lead to fatal results. For this
reason it will be worth while to ask for a moment
what is really involved in the dispute about vest-
.1 Charge. 83
ments. History corrects many errors and dispels
many illusions. It tells us that in themselves
vestments are absolutely unimportant. The chasuble
in its origin had no ecclesiastical meaning. A
common out-door garment of the ancients, the casula
had not and could not have any sacerdotal or
sacrificial bearing. The learned professions are pro-
verbially conservative in matters of dress ; and the
chasuble, with other garments now regarded as
ecclesiastical, was retained by the clergy long after
its general disuse. It was not till the eighth century,
when symbolical interpretation in all forms was rife,
that analogies were sought out in the clerical dress to
the sacrificial robes of the Jewish priests. This being
so, it is deeply to be regretted that in recent con-
troversy the opponents, not less than the champions,
of vestments should have encouraged the view that
this sacrificial character was inherent in them. In
the interests of peace it is well to minimise their
significance. We cannot say how much perplexity
for the future may not be created by thus investing
them with a fictitious importance. It would be a
real gain if we could be led to see that in themselves
they are not worth contending for or against.
But from another point of view they have a real
significance. The wearing of vestments at the cele-
bration of the Holy Communion is at least the use of
a distinctive dress. But this need not trouble any
one. Whatever may be our view respecting the Holy
Communion, all Churchmen alike regard it as the
84 A Charge.
highest office of Christian worship ; and so regarding
it, they can hardly see any impropriety, though they
may see much inexpediency, in marking it by a
distinctive dress. This principle is conceded in the
very judgment which pronounces the use of the
chasuble illegal, for it rests on the validity of the
Advertisements of Queen Elizabeth, which enjoin the
use of the cope in certain cases. If a distinctive dress
be objectionable, the objection holds as much against
the cope as against the chasuble.
But are the vestments lawful after all ? The
decision of the highest legal court has said distinctly
no ; the judgment of many, based on the prima facie
interpretation of the ornaments rubric, declares as
emphatically yes. The cjuestions which the dispute
raises are manifold. Were the Advertisements of
Queen Elizabeth ever issued by proper authority or
not ? If authoritative, were they intended to super-
sede the then existing lawr regarding vestments, or
only to supplement it ? Does the present ornaments
rubric, as modified at the last revision of the Prayer
Book, enjoin their use, or does it leave the matter
optional ? Above all ought the Advertisements,
supposing them to be authoritative, to be read into
this rubric, which was later in time, or ought they
not ? It is evident that the answers to these
questions must depend largely on historical facts.26
In this region of history new discoveries may at any
moment materially alter the aspect of the question.
Meanwhile is it any real strain on the conscience of a
A Charge. 85
clergyman to submit to the judgment of the highest
legal authorities, even though he may not admit their
validity as an ecclesiastical court, and may even think
them mistaken ?
6.
Church and State.
It would be vain to deny that the relations
between the Church and the State have become
seriously entangled of late and still cause great
anxiety. Only time and forbearance can untie the
knot, which a headstrong impatience would cut at
once. From either extreme point of view the per-
plexity vanishes. An Erastian conception, the
absolute identity of the two, solves all difficulties ;
but this we repudiate as sapping the very foundations
of the Church. If the Church is not a spiritual corpo-
ration, a kingdom of Christ on earth, it is nothing at
all. On the other hand the absolute independence of
the two is simplicity itself in theory, but in practice
it is a mere idle vision. The ' libera chiesa in libero
stato ' — the dream of Cavour — sounds well enough as
an epigram ; but it never has been and never can be
realised in fact. So long as Church and State occupy
the same ground, interest the same men, influence the
same consciences, contact and conflict are inevitable.
The Church was not free in the age of the perse-
cutions under the Roman Emperors. The Church is
not free in Italy in our own generation. The English
Nonconformists discover from time to time that they
too are entangled with the State. The law courts
s(i A Charge.
step in, and decide questions which, though nominally
only affecting property, really touch far more im-
portant interests. The Anglican Church in South
Africa has found recently to her cost that she also is
most seriously affected by the interposition of the
State.
The more I read history, the more difficult I find
it to trace definite and immutable principles, which
shall under all circumstances regulate the relations
between the Church and the State. I am speaking
more especially now of the point which at the present
moment causes the greatest anxiety — the judicial
proceedings affecting the clergy ; but it applies
equally to other matters, such as the appointment of
her chief officers. Principles, which at one time the
clergy of the Church maintained with as much
tenacity as if they were fundamental articles of the
faith, have long since been abandoned with universal
consent. No one would now fight for the immunity
of the clergy from the jurisdiction of the criminal
courts of the realm. It is shocking to the moral
sense of this age that a clerk convicted of a grave
crime should only be degraded, where a layman
would be hanged. These lessons of the past we
should do well to take to heart, as a caution for the
future.
I am especially anxious to obtain a hearing for
these lessons of history ; because it seems to me that
the most fatal consequences might ensue, if the
conception of a hard and fast line between the rights
A Cli<try<>. 87
of the Church and {State were maintained, and the
clergy were to consider themselves exempted from all
obligations the moment this line was transgressed.
So far as I can see, utter and irreparable confusion
would be the result, if this idea were pushed to its
logical conclusion. What is to come of our parochial
arrangements ? How again would it affect the exer-
cise of episcopal authority ? Were the clergy of
Cornwall justified in withdrawing their allegiance
from the Bishop of Exeter to the Bishop of Truro, or
the clergy of South Lancashire from the Bishop of
Chester to the Bishops of Manchester and of Liver-
pool ? The whole fabric of our institutions may be
imperilled, if we yield no ecclesiastical ' obedience,
unless the claim to this obedience can be traced
to a distinctly ecclesiastical source.
I am driven therefore to the conclusion that, viewed
from the side of the Church, the relations between
Church and State, so far at least as regards existing
complications, resolve themselves ultimately into a
question of expediency. But while using this term
expediency I deprecate its being understood in any
low selfish sense, as applying to material interests.
I refer solely to the spiritual interests of which the
Church is the guardian. The question that she has
to ask herself is whether her union with the State
enables her to fulfil better the high spiritual functions
which devolve upon her. But when we ask the
question, no narrow interpretation can be given to her
spiritual functions. If she had no other aspiration
88 A CJian/e,
than to gather together compact congregations with
definite and well ordered services of one particular
type, and to leave the masses of the population to
themselves, then there is much to be said for a
severance of the union. If any Churchman were
content to take this view, I could imagine him not
only awaiting disestablishment patiently, but even
heartily welcoming it. He might thus be able better
to carry out his own ideas unfettered and undis-
turbed. Solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant. But
if it be the true spiritual function of the Church — the
ideal after which she aspires — to carry the Gospel
into the highways and hedges and so to leaven the
people of England throughout, then she will cling
tenaciously to the advantages and the opportunities
she enjoys by her union with the State. Nothing
but the imperious mandate of conscience would
justify her in voluntarily relinquishing the vantage
ground on which God has placed her.
For the reasons which I have explained I cannot
consider the questions relating to the authority and
constitution of ecclesiastical courts which at the
present moment are agitating the minds of men, as
belonging to the essence of things. Nevertheless it
is much to be regretted that in recent legislation so
little regard has been paid to the technical principles
which heretofore had been accepted with reference
to ecclesiastical courts. These principles are at all
events the result of long experience ; they have
established a firm hold on the minds of the clergy.
A Charge. 89
It is before all things necessary for good government
that those who are subject to any jurisdiction should
acknowledge its validity ; and this is especially the
case in ecclesiastical matters, where the conscience
is more or less touched. Any sudden break with
the past is especially to be deprecated here. The
Ecclesiastical Courts Commission now sitting will, it
is hoped, lead to the reconstitution of our courts on a
basis which will command the confidence of all who
are directly concerned.
7.
Anxieties and Hopes.
The last two years have been a period of especial
anxiety. The spectacle of an earnest and devoted
clergyman, detained in gaol many weary months for
conscience sake, has been felt on all hands to be a
gross anachronism. Whatever men may have thought
of the offence, there has been no difference of opinion
as to the punishment. Yet for a time there seemed
no hope of a solution. Mr. Green's opportune action
has cut the knot which was past untying. All
honour to him for this seasonable act which must
have cost much sacrifice of personal feeling, probably
also some resistance to party pressure. But it was a
cheap price to pay for the peace of the Church.
Those, who had no sympathy with Mr. Green's cause
in the first instance, will be the most ready to do
justice to his last step. The message of peace from
the Primate's death-bed has removed another cause of
90 A Charge.
anxiety. The ecclesiastical atmosphere is clearer than
it has been for some time past. But what is to come
next ?
No more prosecutions, I trust. The English
Church is weary of them ; the English people have
had enough of them. If there is only reasonable
patience and forbearance on both sides — a willingness
to sacrifice something of self or of party for Christ
and Christ's Church — I do not fear a renewal of them.
On the other hand it is not fair to seek to extort from
the Bishops a promise that under no possible circum-
stances they will consent to a prosecution. They
cannot honourably give such a promise. But mean-
while they will be the least desirous of all men to
promote legal proceedings. Not a few cases have
been stopped hitherto by the veto which they possess ;
and doubtless this power will be exercised more and
more in the same direction, if the occasion should
arise.
The Public Worship Regulation Act made the
prosecution for ecclesiastical offences easy. But the
facilities thus afforded were dangerous, unless some
power of regulating matters relating to public worship
was created at the same time. It is deeply to be
regretted that the Bishop of London's Bill did not
become law. It would have materially eased, if not
altogether removed, the strain. Many accompani-
ments of divine worship are not defined by rubric ;
some of them lie beyond the possibility of definition.
The principle laid down, that what is not enjoined is
A Charge. 91
forbidden, cannot be strictly carried out. It would
paralyse public worship. We all infringe this
principle at some point ; we cannot help infringing
it. It would not be desirable at any time that
absolutely rigid lines should be laid down. But
such inflexibility is especially inopportune in an
age when the development of spiritual life of
the Church seeks new outlets in devotional worship.
The Public Worship Kegulation Act tends to pro-
mote rigidity. This tendency can only be counter-
acted by the creation of some authority which,
being set in motion easily, shall have power to
modify, to relax, to reconstruct rubrics, and generally
to regulate the conditions of Divine Worship within
prescribed limits.
But it may be some time before this end is attained.
Meanwhile let us exercise all patience. It is a matter
of common complaint that the Church is trammelled
and fettered by her connexion with the State.
Doubtless she cannot expect the advantages of this
connexion without paying the price of it. But
practically no Church is so free as our own. The
evidence of this freedom is twofold. There is first of
all her comprehensiveness, and there is secondly her
activity.
Her comprehensiveness is the great boast of the
Church of England. If we have been tempted to
forget or despise this our heritage, death has recalled
us to a better mind. The graves of Arthur Penrhyn
Stanley and Edward Bouverie Pusey are hardly yet
92 A Charge.
closed. We have mourned over the one and the
other with equal sincerity. Each has taught us
valuable lessons. The Church would have been
seriously impoverished by the exclusion of either.
May this comprehensiveness always be ours. At the
present moment at least there seems little fear of our
losing it ; for from the force of circumstances it is
most jealously guarded by those whose temper of
mind and cast of opinion would least predispose them
in this way.
But a still stronger evidence, than the comprehension
of various men, is the manifestation of varied activity.
Liberty means the capacity of movement and of
action. If this is the truest test of freedom, then no
Church is or has been more free than our own. No
doubt this very energy tends in its restlessness to
make any restraint feel galling. But it is often good
for the moral health of an institution, as it is good
for the moral health of an individual, that it should
submit to restraints and limitations. They are its
proper discipline.
Never since the earliest days of Christianity, has
any Church exhibited greater signs of active, healthy,
vigorous life. It is the manifoldness of the develop-
ments, which arrests and compels our attention.
Public worship, devotional literature, hymnology,
architecture and music, charitable and educational
institutions, parochial organizations, mission preaching,
Bible classes, guilds, sisterhoods — in whatever di-
rection we look it is the same.
A Charge. 93
And no Church since the beginning has seemed so
manifestly pointed out by the finger of Almighty
God to fulfil a great part in His providential designs
as the Church of England in our day. She has not
broken with any social or intellectual aspirations of
her own age ; and yet she has surrendered no sacred
principles or traditions of the past. She stands
midway between the irregular forces of Protestant
Nonconformity and the rigid militarism of Eome.
She is showing daily more and more aptitude for
dealing with the masses at home, though she has still
very much to learn. She is occupying year by year
a more prominent position among the Churches
abroad. The See of Canterbury in strong and
vigorous hands has been something more than the
Primacy of All England. It has proved the Patri-
archate, not indeed in name, but in effect, of a vast
aggregate of Anglican communities scattered over the
continent and islands throughout the world. The
sense of her Catholicity has been restored to the
Church of England through the spread of the English
race.
Her mission is unique ; her capabilities and
opportunities are magnificent. Shall we spoil this
potentiality, shall we stultify this career, shall we mar
this destiny by impatience, by self-will, by party
spirit, by misguided and headstrong zeal, by harsh
words embittering strife, by any narrowness of
temper or of aim or of view ? A grave responsibility
—no graver can well be conceived — rests upon us all.
94 A Cltaryc.
Never were our hopes brighter ; never were our
anxieties keener ; never was there greater need of
that divine charity which beareth all things, believeth
all things. Happy they wTho so feel, and so act ; for
theirs is the crown of crowns.
NOTES.
NOTE 1, p. 6.
The Act regulating the appointment of Suffragans is 26 Henry
vni c. 14 (A.D. 1534). Berwick is one of twenty-six places
named to give titles to these Suffragans. The Act however does
not require that the Suffragan shall take his title from a town lying
within the same diocese in which he is to exercise episcopal functions.
It is enough that the see ' be within the province whereof the
bishop that doth name him is ' (see Phillimore, Ecclesiastical Law
I. p. 97). Soon after the passing of this Act Bishop Tonstall
procured the appointment of Thomas Sparke as Bishop of Berwick
(A.D. 1537). A full account of this person is given in Raine's
North Durham p. 127 sq. He had been educated at Durham
College, Oxford, and was Prior of Holy Island at the time of the
dissolution (A.D. 1536). He was also one of the first Prebendaries
of Durham Cathedral. He died Master of Greatham Hospital (A.D.
1571) and was buried there. His will, dated A.D. 1563, is extant.
At an earlier date we read from time to time of Suffragans acting
under the Bishops of Durham. Thus Thomas, Bishop of Dromore,
acted in this capacity under Bishop Neville (A.D. 1440), and a
certain Prior of Brenkburn under Bishop Dudley (A.D. 1478-9) : see
Raine's Auckland Castle pp. 49, 50, 55. The Act of Henry vni
did not create but regulate the office.
NOTE 2, p. 6.
This Act is printed in full by Sir T. D. Hardy in his Preface to
Registrum Palatinum Dunelmense I. p. Ixxxv sq., published in the
Master of the Rolls series. It begins thus :
"Exhibits est Regie magestati in Parliamento predicto Billa
quedam formam actus in se continens •
Where the Byshoppryke of Durham ys at this p'nte time voyde of
96 Notts.
a Byshoppe, so as the gifte thereof remainethe in the Kinge
Maiestie most good and gracyous pleasure to bee dysposed and
bestowed as to his princely wisedome shall seame beaste and most
convenient. And forasmuche as the cyrcuite and compace of
thordynarye jurisdiction of the sayd Byshopryk ys lardge and
greate and extendethe into many shieres and counties, and thone
of them being so farre dystante from thother, so as the chardge
thereof may not conveniently bee supplyed, and well and suf-
ficiently dischardged by one Ordynarye or one Byshoppe. And
foreasmuch as the Kinge matie of his most godly dysposition ys
desirous to have Goddes most holy and sacredd Woorde in thos
partyes adioyning to the borders of Scotlande being now wylde
and barbarous for lacke of good doctrine and godly educac'on in
good 1'res and learning plentifully taught, preached, and set foorthe
amongest his loving subiectes ther as thanckes be unto God the
same ys well exersysed and put in vse in divers other p'ties of this
Realme, doeth therefore mynde and ys fully determyned to have
twoo seuerall ordynarye Seas of Bishoppes to be erected and estab-
lyshed within the lymytes, boundes, and jurisdicc'ons of the said
Bishopprick of Durham, whereof thone shalbee called the sea of
the Bishoprick of Durham, and thother the sea of the Byshoprick of
Newcastell vpon Tyne, and tappoint twoo apte, meete, and godly
learned men in Goddes holy Woorde to be Bishoppes of the same
seuerall dyoces and to endowe them seuerally withe manours, landes,
tenementes, and other hereditaments with suche good and honour-
able lyberties and priuelege as shalbe mete and convenient for any of
the Kinge subiectes to haue oor enioye ; that is to say, the sayd
Bishopricke of Durham withe manours, landes, tenementes, and other
heredytamentes of the clere yerely valours of twoo thowsaride
marckes. And the said Bishoprike of Newcastell withe manours,
landes, tenementes, and other hereditamentes of the clere yerelye
value of one thowsande marckes. And also to make the sayd town of
Newcastell vpon Tyne one cytye, whiche shalbe called the Cytye of
Newcastell vpon Tyne. And to prouide and appoint ther one
churche which shalbee called the Cathedrall Churche of Newcastell
vpon Tyne and the Sea of the Bishoprike thereof. And also to
erecte and make one deanrye and chapter ther and to endowe the
same withe convenient possessions and hereditamentes for the mayn-
tenance thereof. Aiid to make statutes and ordenances for the
better ordering of the sayd deanrye and chapter, whiche good und
Notes.
97
godly intente and purpose can not conveniently bee fully finished
and p'fected but by theyde and auctoritee of p'leament. Be it
therfore inacted by thauctorite of this p'leament that the said
Bishoprike of Durham, to gyther withall thordynarye jurisdic'ons
thereunto belonging and apperteining shalbe adiudged from hens-
forthe clerely dissolved extinguished and determined. And that
the King, our Souereyne Lorde, shall from hensfoorthe haue, holde,
possede and enioye, to him, his heires and successoures for euer, all
and singler honnoures, castelles, manoures, lordeshippes. etc
which dothe apperteine or belong to the sayd Bishoprike of Durham,
in as large and ample maner and fourme as the late Bishoppe of the
sayd Bishoprike, or any of his predecessoures Bishoppes ther had
helde or occupied or of right ought to haue hadd holden or occupy ed
in the right of the sayd Bishoprike, etc."
NOTE 3, p. 8.
The populations of the two counties respectively at different
epochs are as follow :
A.D.
DURHAM.
NORTHUMBERLAND.
1801
149,384 168,078
1821
193,511
212,589
1831
239,256
236,959
1841
307,963
266,020
1851
390.997
303,568
1861
508,666
343,025
1871
685,045 386,959
1881
867,586
434,024
The population of the Diocese of Durham according to the census
of 1881 was as follows :—
County of Durham
County of Northumberland -
Alston and Chapelries -
- 867,586
- 434,024
4,621
Total 1,306,231
Alston with its Chapelries forms part of the new Diocese of
Newcastle.
G
98 Notes.
NOTE 4, p. 9.
The resolution of the Town Council of Newcastle mentioned in
this paragraph is dated June 14, 1854. It was proposed by Sir
John Fife, and carried unanimously. These are the terms :
" That the Council adopt a memorial to the Ecclesiastical Com-
missioners and to the Secretary of State for the Home Department
showing that the Diocese of Durham is too extensive for its proper
administration, and to institute a Diocese of Northumberland, to
purchase the Vicarage of Newcastle-on-Tyne from the Bishop of
Carlisle, and to make St. Nicholas' Church in Newcastle-on-Tyne
the Cathedral, and to raise Newcastle into the dignity of a Metro-
politan City."
The following is an extract from the Memorial to the Cathedral
Commissioners (Third and Final Report, May 25, 1855, p. xli) :
"The Diocese of Durham contains at the present time an esti-
mated population of nearly 770,000, and it extends from north to
south a distance of more than one hundred miles, with an area equal
to one-eighteenth part of the whole of England.
" The progressive increase in the population has of late years been
unusually great and rapid : the increase in the counties of Durham
and Northumberland alone, since the year 1831, amounting to
nearly 300,000 inhabitants.
" Owing to the opening out of fresh mines, and the activity of
commercial enterprise, new and large masses of the working classes
are constantly springing up, both in the mining and manufacturing
districts, and at all 'the seaports within the said Diocese. New-
castle-upon-Tyne has more than trebled its inhabitants in forty years,
but has only one district church more at present than it had 300
years ago : and at least 6,000 children of the labouring classes are
without school accommodation in the borough. The results are
what might naturally be expected — a fearful increase of crime,
juvenile profligacy of a most degraded character, with defective in-
formation on religious subjects, and much indifference to the claims
and duties of Christianity.
" From the above premises it is respectfully submitted that the
Diocese of Durham, as at present constituted, with its overgrown
and increasing population full of energy and enterprise, is too cum-
bersome for the physical powers of one Bishop where an active per-
sonal superintendence is so much required : it seems not unreason-
able to hope that provision be made at the next voidance of the see of
Notes. 99
Durham for the creation of Northumberland into a separate Bishop-
rick, which shall include the county of Northumberland, with the
boroughs of the counties of Newcastle-ori-Tyne and Berwick-on-
Tweed, with such parts of the county of Durham as are situated in
the county of Northumberland."
" The extraordinary increase of our population is in a great
measure attributable to the development of the mineral resources of
the Bishop and Chapter of Durham."
NOTE 5, p. 10.
Those who are interested in the history of the subject will find
useful information in a pamphlet by Canon Hume of Liverpool,
entitled Growth of the Episcopate in England and Wales during
Seventeen Centuries, 1880, and in The Increase of the Episcopate,
with particular reference to the Division of the Diocese of Durham,
1880, by Derwent.
NOTE 6, p. 11.
Extract from Bishop Baring's Charge, delivered September,
1878:
"A Bill for the increase of the Episcopate, which will materially
affect the welfare of the Diocese, inasmuch as it contemplates the
formation of a new See for Northumberland, has received the
sanction of the Legislature, and I avail myself of this opportunity of
stating the reasons which induce me to think that a division of
Diocese is much needed The expediency of the subdivision of
this Diocese is based not upon any general theory as to the necessity
of an increase in the Episcopate, but upon the unusual extent of its
territory, and the unparalleled increase in its population. It ex-
tends from north to south a distance of more than one hundred
miles, with an area equal to one-eighteenth part of the whole of
England. There are only three dioceses with a larger area, and only
five with a larger population : and two of these will be divided under
the arrangements of this new Act
" But if the need of more Episcopal supervision was thus acknow-
ledged more than twenty years ago (1855), it is more apparent in
the present day, when not merely has the population continued to
increase at a still more rapid rate, so that the census of 1871 ex-
hibited an increase in ten years of more than 220,000 souls, but
when, through the growing zeal and liberality of laity and clergy,
100 Note*.
the number of benefices since the year 1857 has risen from 260 to
372, and the number of clergy from 353 to 531. When therefore in
the autumn of 1876 I referred the question of the expediency of the
formation of a see for Northumberland, whilst there was much differ-
ence of opinion expressed as to the sources from whence the endow-
ment should be obtained and the amount of that endowment, the
judgment was almost unanimous as to the desirableness of the
creation of a new See. It was not to be expected that in arriving at
this conclusion many of the clergy of Northumberland should not
feel much regret at the prospect of a separation from the ancient See
and Cathedral of Durham, with which they had been associated so
many years, but they were found willing to sacrifice their personal
feelings and predilections in order to forward an object which
seemed so manifestly calculated to advance the best interests of our
northern Church. The prospect of the accomplishment of this good
work is I fear remote."
NOTE 7, p. 15.
The following is a brief statement of the sums contributed to the
Newcastle Bishopric Endowment :
Mr. Hedley's Legacy - - 16,200 0 0
Subscriptions —
General Fund 48,975 10 6
Special Congress Fund 3,308 19 2
52,284 9 8
Church Collections 1,871 211
Benwell Tower, estimated at 12,500 0 0
Total £82,855 12 7
Mr. W. Hedley, the brother of the testator, had a life interest in
the property left for the endowment of the Newcastle Bishopric.
He kindly consented to relinquish this in order to facilitate the
immediate creation of the See, and the sum mentioned, £16,200,
represents the balance paid over to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners
after compensation for the relinquishment. This sum was paid by
the executors on August 11, 1879, and invested by the Commis-
sioners, so as to produce an income of £605 14s. 2d. per annum.
In some cases it is difficult to say whether a contribution ought
to be set down to the General Fund or to the Special Congress Fund ;
Notes. 101
but no sum is here set down to the Congress Fund which was not
promised during or in consequence of the Congress.
The amount of the General Fund, as here given, does not include
a contribution of £2,000 promised by the late Col. Joicey, but not
paid owing to his lamented death.
It will be interesting to learn how much of the total was
contributed in large sums. The large contributions are as
follows :
£10,000 2
£3,000 1
£2,000 1
£1,000 5
£600 -2
£500 9
£300 1
£250 6
£200 9
£150 3
£105 8
£100 47
The whole expenses of collection, which have fallen on the Fund,
have been less than £290.
The Bishoprics Act, 1878, contains a provision that if a fitting
Episcopal residence is provided to the satisfaction of the Com-
missioners the annual value shall be reckoned as £500 towards the
minimum endowment of the See. I have therefore set down the
value of Benwell Tower as representing a capital sum of £12,500,
interest being reckoned at £4 per cent. Benwell Tower has never
been valued.
The sums collected (wiih the exception of a small balance still
to be handed over) have, after payment of expenses, been invested,
and the interest forms the income of the new See. In addition to
this source of income the Bishopric of Newcastle is endowed with
£1,000 per annum withdrawn from the income of the Bishop of
Durham from the moment of the creation of the new See.
NOTE 8, p. 19.
Extracts relating to the origin of the Officialty, from ' Historiae
Dunelmensis scriptores tres,' Surtees Society, vol. 9.
Bullet Gregorii Papa? vii, universalibus de possessionibus et liber-
tatibus concessis ecclesiae DiuielmensL A.D. 1083. Appendix ix, p. vii.
102 Notes.
Item, secundura Lindisfarnensis abbatis antiquam dignitatem,
praedicto Priori dexteram Episcopi, et primum locum et honorem
post episcopum, et in ecclesia Dunelmensi sedem abbatis in choro,
et omnia officia et jura Abbatis super monachos et eorum possesiones,
nomine Prioris, indulgeinus ; et super ecclesias et clericos ecclesiis
deservientes, quas in Episcopatu Dunelmensi cujuscunque largicione
canon ice adipisci valebit, Archidiaconatus officium ejus discrecioni
delegamus ; quatenus omnia ad idem monasterium pertinentia ejus
regimini et disposicioni, adhibito dumtaxat Capituli sui consilio,
subjecta, in commune cornmodum extendantur. p. viii.
Carta regis Willielmi gui confirmed libertates nobis concessas causa
archidiaconatus. Appendix p. xvi.
... et, securidum antiqnam Lindisfarnensis ' ecclesiae dignitatem,
Priori dexteram Episcopi sui, et primum locum et honorem in
omnibus post episcopum, et in ecclesia Danelmensi sodem abbatis
in choro sinistro, et omnia officia et jura Abbatis super monachos
et illorum possessiones, nomine Prioris concessi ; ac super ecclesias
eorum, et clericos ecclesiis deservientes, quas per episcopatum
Dunelmensem cujuscunque largicione adipisci potuerint, archi-
diaconatus officium eis confirmavi.
Carta W. regis primi de confirmacione libertaium quas W. episcopus
dedit monachis et de conjirmacione archidiaconatus. Appendix p. xvii.
Sed et archidiaconatum Priori Turgoto et successoribus ejus sicut
nunc habet, concede, secundum concessionem W. eorundem episcopi.
Carta Willielmi episcopi primi de privilegio spiritualitatis et liber-
tatibus temporalitatis a Willielmo primo rege Anglice, et a Gregorio
Papa septimo confirmatis. Appendix p. xxiv.
Et sit Archidiaconus omnium ecclesiarum suarum in episcopatu
Dunelmensi, ut nullus super eum de ecclesiis vel clericis suis se in-
tromittat Volumus etiam, ut nobis absentibus, praedictus Prior in
synodo de querelis et aliis Christianitatis officiis, quae ipse et Archi-
diaconi per se facere possint, vices nostras agat. Curiam vero suam,
quam dominus meus Rex Willielmus dedit et concessit eidem Priori
et Conventui, ita libere et honorifice in omnibus, sicut habemus
nostram, eis concedimus et confirmamus. p. xxv,
Robertus de Graystanes p. 46. Cap. viii. Nota pro jure Archi-
diaconatus.
Notes.
103
Anno domini etc, MCCLXXI, in capella sua de Aukeland, coram
domino episcopo, recognovit magister Robert us de S. Agata archi-
diaconus Dunelmensis Priorem Dunelmensem fuisse archidiaconum
in ecclesiis sibi appropriatis infra aquas ; et archidiaconos, praede-
cessores suos, nomine Prioris et non nomine proprio, jurisdictionem
in illis ecclesiis exercuisse, et propter hoc Priori pensioncm annuam
exsolvisse.
The Official exercised Archidiaconal control over 39 parishes and'
74 .clergy (39 incumbents, 35 curates) at the time when the
Officialty was abolished.
NOTE 9, p. 21.
The old Deaneries were :
1. Chester (East)
2. Chester (West)
3. Darlington (North)
4. Darlington (South)
The new Deaneries are :
1. J arrow
2. Chester-le-Street
3. Ryton
4. Durham
5. Houghton-le-Spring
6. Wearmouth
7. Easington
G.
Easington (North)
Easington (South)
Stockton.
8.
Auckland 1 ^
9.
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0
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NOTE 10, p. 23.
New Parishes formed since Bishop Baring's Visitation, 1878 :
DURHAM.
S. Stephen, Sunderland
S. Peter, Stockton
S. Paul, West Pelton
S. John, Stillington
S. Simon, South Shields
S. Mark, Eldon
7. S. George, Fatfield
8. S. Michael and All Angels, Westoe
9. S. Nicholas, Hedworth
10. S. Edmund, Bearpark
(a)
(a)
(a)
(a)
(a)
(a)
(a)
(a)
(a)
104 Notes.
11. S. Cuthbert, Monkwearmouth
12. S. Peter, Jarrow
13. S. John, Monk Hesleden.
NORTHUMBERLAND.
(a) 1. S. Cuthberf;, Newcastle-on-Tyne
(a) 2. S. Matthew, Newcastle-on-Tyne
3. S. Cuthbert. Haydon Bridge
4. S. Oswald-in-Lee with St. Mary, Bingfield
5. S. Mary Magdalene, Prudhoe.
The districts marked (a) were constituted previously to 1878, but
they only became new Parishes after 1878, on the consecration of
their respective churches.
The following new districts have been formed in addition to the
above, but their churches not being consecrated, they have not be-
come new Parishes :
DURHAM.
Waterhouses
S. Oswald, Hebburn.
NORTHUMBERLAND.
S. George, Cullercoats.
Churches consecrated since the last Visitation :
1879. S. Stephen, Sunderland
Bearpark
Fatfield
Eldon
1880. S. Matthew, Newcastle
South Hylton
Stillington
S. Simon, South Shields
West Pelton
S. Cuthbert, Monkwearmouth
Mickley (Prudhoe)
S. Philip, Bishop Auckland
Duddo
1881. S. Cuthbert, Newcastle
S. Peter, Jarrow
S. Peter, Stockton
1882. Red worth
S. Michael, Westoe
S. John, Monk Hesleden.
Notes. 105
NOTE 11, p. 24.
The three questions relating to the Diocesan Conference have
since been settled as follows :
(1) A larger representation both of clergy and of laity.
(2) The Conference to be held in alternate years.
(3) Questions to be discussed but not voted upon.
NOTE 12, p. 27.
At the Proceedings at the Meeting of the Central Council of Dio-
cesan Conferences, March 13, 1883, it was reported that
" Twenty-four Diocesan Conferences send Lay and Clerical
representatives to the Central Council. For the present Salisbury
and Liverpool decline to join, and the subject has not yet been
brought before Exeter, York, or Durham."
NOTE 13, p. 28.
Arrangements have since been made for the separate organization,
in the two Dioceses, of all the Diocesan Societies, except the
Diocesan Board of Inspection, which will be a matter for future
consideration. The Diocesan* Branch of the Church of England
Temperance Society for Durham has been reorganized, and is thus
entering (it is hoped) upon a fresh and still more vigorous career of
usefulness (see Diocesan Magazine, March 1883, p. 39).
NOTE 14, p, 33.
Since the charge was delivered, commissions have been issued to
several additional lay-readers. The movement however is still in
its infancy, and I must look to the practical experience and
thoughtful consideration of the parochial clergy to advise and assist
me in the development of this movement, which I am more and
more persuaded is the great problem laid before the Church of our
day. Thirty-one of these lay readers were publicly admitted at the
service in Durham Cathedral on Friday, June 22nd.
NOTE 15, p. 35.
I am not yet able to report substantial progress in this matter.
NOTE 16, p. 37.
The great gathering of these and other Church Societies in
Durham Cathedral on Friday, June 22 (see Diocesan Magazine
p. 100) is a fact to be remembered with deep thankfulness.
10G
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Notes.
NOTE 18, p. 45.
The statistics of the confirmations during the last three periods
of four years — from Visitation to Visitation — are as follows :
YEARS.
FEMALES.
MALES.
TOTAL.
1871—1874
1875—1878
1879—1882
9,471
10,454
15,404
6,222
7,048
10,411
15,693
17,502
25,815
NOTE 19, p. 46.
The following parishes return amounts for various church works
during the four years, above £2,000.
Auckland, S. Andrew £7,800
Aycliffe - - - - 3,500
Bearpark- - - - 4,600
Croxdale - - - - 2,320
Durham, S. Margaret's - 3,000
Fatfield - - - - 7,775
Hebburn, S. Oswald's - 2,080
Jarrow, S. Peter's - - 5,900
Jarrow Grange - - 6,500
Middleton-in-Teesdale - 5,000
Monk Hesleden, S. John's 2,200
WestPelton - - £9,225
Ryton - - - - 2,038
Shildon .... 3,350
Silks worth - - - 2,270
S. Shields, S. Hilda's - 4,500
H. Trinity - 4,341
,, S. Simon's - 3,500
,, South Westoe - 3,460
Stillington - - - 2,500
Stockton, S. Peter's - 6,000
Sunderlaiid, H. Trinity - 2,321
By an error, a large sum is reckoned twice' in the total given in
the text, £155,000. The correct total is about £145,000. This
however does not represent the whole sum spent. It is derived
from the returns of 130 parishes alone.
NOTE 20, p. 49.
The following is a table of the incumbencies vacated either by
resignation (R) or by death (D) during the four years which elapsed
between the two last Visitations (A.D. L879 — 1882). During the
last year (1882) no account is taken of Northumberland, as the
diocese of Newcastle was founded in the earlier half of the year.
Cases of exchange are included under R. Where no outgoing in-
cumbent is named, the incumbency was created for the first time.
Notes.
109
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NOTE 21, p. 51.
As a successful resistance has hitherto been offered to including
religious statistics in the decennial Census, the relative strength
of the Church of England and Nonconformity can only be estimated
in irregular ways.
In the British Contributions to Foreign Missions, published
annually by the Rev. W. A. Scott Robertson, I find the following
Statistics for 1882 :
Church of England Societies - - £500,306
Joint Societies of Churchmen and Noncon-
formists 154,813
English and Welsh Nonconformist Societies - 348,175
Scotch and Irish Presbyterian Societies - 176,362
Roman Catholic Societies - - - 11,519
Total British Contributions for 1882 - 1,191,175
A somewhat similar test is found in the Collections on Hospital
Sunday in the Metropolis. In 1882 (See National Churchy. 29,
1883) the sums collected at the various places of worship in London
amounted to £31,944 18s. 8d, of which more than three-fourths
were contributed by the Church of England. The five highest
amounts were as follows :
Church of England - -£24,49619 1
Congregationalists - 2,099 15 4
Baptists 1,162 19 3
Wesleyans - 984 13 1
Jews - 983 19 0
The proportions of contributions in the previous year (1881) were as
nearly as possible the same.
Interesting statistics of a different kind, bearing on the subject,
will be found in Three Essay* (A Census of Religions, Denomina-
tional Worship, The National Church) by the Rt. Hon. J. G.
Hubbard (Longmans, 1882). These Essays should be read by
every one interested in the subject. I quote from p. 17 sq. :
'We turn for our denominational statistics to the year 1870.
Owing to the subsequent fusion of denominations in School Boards,
that is the latest date at which would be found official returns of
H
114 Note*.
the religious classification of the children attending primary Schools.
In the year 1870, according to the Education Department, there
were under inspection in the primary Schools 1,434,765 children,
of whom 72' 6 per 100 were in Church Schools.'
'Of 190,054 Marriages in 1878, 72'6 per 100 were of the
Church.'
'Of 32,361 Seamen and Mariners employed in 1875, the per-
centage of Churchmen was 75*5.
'The army of 183,024 men, having in 1870 as many as 24'0 per
100 Roman Catholics, still showed a proportion of Churchmen
equal to 6 2 -5 per cent.'
' Of 101,458 adult inmates of workhouses in 1875, the proportion
of Church people was 79 per cent.'
'Of 22,677 prisoners in gaol in 1867, the proportion returned as
Churchmen was 75 per 100.'
' The number of Nonconformist Chapels supplied to Dr. Mann
contrasts strangely with the number of ' Ministers ' recorded in the
enumerated Professions of the Official Census of 1851. In that
Report the Clergy of the Church are stated at 17,320, and the
Ministers of all other denominations at 8,658 [while the number of
Churches is 14,077 and the number of Nonconformist Chapels
20,390].'
' One expects to find some proportion between the number of the
shepherds and the number of the folds into which they gather their
sheep ; but while the Clergy considerably exceeded in number the
Churches in which they officiated, Nonconformist Ministers of all
sects do not in number equal one-half of the buildings which are
said to have been provided for them and are appealed to as an
evidence of progress.'
The discrepancy is explained by the fact that among registered
Nonconformist places of worship are included Music-halls, Assembly
Rooms, rooms in hotels, even private dwelling-houses, where
worship is conducted. Illustrations are given by Mr. Hubbard
(p. 15, sq.) and more fully in The Englishman's Brief on behalf of
his National Church (Appendix C) p. 188 sq., a work published by
the S.P.C.K., and well worthy of attention.
Again ; the statistics of Schools, before and after the passing of
the Education Act in 1870, are highly instructive ;
Notes. H5
Voluntary Expenditure on Church Schools and Training Colleges.
Schools :
Building
Maintenance
FROM 1811
TO 1870.
SINCE
1870.
TOTAL.
£
6,270,577
8,500,000
£
5,333,595
6,642,866
£
11,604,172
15,142,866
Training Colleges :
Building
Maintenance
194,085
185,276
77,100
176,631
271,185
361,907
15,149,938
12,230,192
27,380,130
The amount of accommodation and average attendance in Church
and other Schools during the last three years also deserves
attention :
Accommodation.
DAY SCHOOLS, YEAR ENDED
AUGUST 31.
1880.
1881.
1882.
Church -
British, &c.
Wesleyan
Roman Catholic
Board
2,327,379
386,034
196,566
248,140
1,082,634
2,351,235
384,905
197,871
261,354
1,194,268
2,385,374
384,060
200,909
269,231
1,298,746
4,240,753
4,389,633
4,538,320
Average Attendance.
DAY SCHOOLS, YEAR ENDED
AUGUST 31.
1880.
1881.
1882.
Church -
British, &c.
Wesleyan
Roman Catholic
Board
1,471,615
243,012
121,408
145,629
769,252
1,490,429
243,747
120,366
152,642
856,351
1,538,408
245,493
125,109
160,910
945,231
2,750,916
2,863,535
3,015,151
116 Not™.
These School statistics are taken from the Report of the National
Education Society (1883). When it is remembered that Churchmen,
besides maintaining their own Schools, are charged with rates for
the support of the Board Schools, these statistics will be seen to be
highly significant.
NOTE 22, p. 61.
My remarks on the working of the Burials Act have called forth
comments from Archdeacon Harrison in Note A to his Charge
delivered to the Clergy of the Archdeaconry of Maidstone, May 1882
(Bivingtons, 1883), to which I would wish to direct attention. His
extracts from the evidence given before the Select Committee of the
House of Commons well deserve study.
NOTE 23, p. 67.
Since this charge was delivered, the question of the permanent
diaconate has been widely discussed. The measure seems to be
regarded with growing favour ; but I cannot say that my misgivings
are overcome. If adopted, I trust it will be worked with caution.
NOTE 24, p. 77.
The publications which reflect the subsequent career and aims of
the Salvation Army are The Salvation War 1882, under the
Generalship of William Booth, and The Salvation Army in relation to
the Church and State by Mrs. Booth. In his latter work the writer
continues to express the same friendly feelings towards ' the Churches'
(see especially p. 44). Yet, as a matter of fact, where attempts
have been made on the part of clergy of the Church of England to
provide instruction and opportunities of worship to members of the
Salvation Army, they have been frustrated by the rigid exigencies
of the ' Army' discipline. The Army has practically become a sect,
though its leaders may still in theory disclaim his position. Mean
while its appeal to sensation has not abated.
NOTE 25, p. 82.
On the subject of the authorization of King James's Version see
a valuable paper by the Rev. R. T. Davidson (now Dean of Windsor)
in Macmillaris Magazine, October 1881.
NOTE 26, p. 84.
An important recent contribution to the Vestments Controversy is
The Church and the Ornaments Rubric by E. B. Wheatley Balme,
Notes. 117
M.A. Even those, who are not able to accept all the author's
results, will (I venture to think) feel that the subject is discussed
with singular clearness and point.
NOTE 27, p. 89.
In the Charge, as delivered, I had spoken of Mr. Green's
' resignation.' Finding that inferences were drawn from the use of
the word which I had not intended, I have altered the expression
for publication.
Tlie publication of this charge has been long post-
poned in the hope that 1 might be able to supplement
it with copious notes, discussing at length the questions
touched upon in the second part. But the exigencies
of other more important work have interposed from
time to time, and prevented the realization of this hope.
Without any further delay therefore it is published in
the form in which it was delivered with the exception
of a verbal alteration here and there.
W. I. Cummins "Eagle" Printing Works, Bishop Auckland.
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